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THE 



LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS 



A COLLATION 

OF THE 

HISTORICAL, BKJGRAPHICAL, AND LITERARY 

REMIXISCEXvSES OF THE TOWN OF 

LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT 



EDITED BY 

George C. BOvSwell 

Pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church 



" That old town, more typical than any other, I think, 

of Connefticut institutions and life" 

Gov. Ingersoll, Banquet to Chief Justice Seymour 



litchfield 

Alex. E. vShumway 

iSqq 



V 



i^l 



37 



35580 



COPYRIGHT,^ i89;5, 1 '-^-^ 
BY GEORGE C' BOSWELL 



TWOCOPItb K£CEIVeO. 




THE HARTFORD PRESS 

The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company 

1899 






<<thi9c .f^clcctcb .Hacmorics 

€>f bis natitjc (Cown arc <©pdicateb to 

.JBr. ILcouarb .^tone 



Pr<?fac<?. 



TuE Litchfield of to-day is in many respects 
a modern town. Its stores, with scarce an 
exception, are as new as those of Seattle or 
Tacoma ; its churches have all been built 
within the memory of men and women who 
worship in them. And while for more than a 
century the beauty of its situation and the 
charm of its streets have been justly cele- 
brated, yet it is within recent years that all 
this has been greatly enhanced by the Village 
Improvement vSociety, and by the enterprise 
and philanthropy of its citizens. 

But no stranger who walks beneath the ven- 
erable elms on its broad park-like streets, or 
looks upon its coiufortable and stately homes, 
but feels that he is on historic ground, — and 
he is right, for there is scarcely a town of its 
size, even in Xew England, that can compare 
with it in memories of more than local in- 
terest. 

This is the home of the Wolcotts and 
Beechers. This is the native town of men 
whose careers have been as dissimilar as Ethan 

(5) 



6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

Allen, on the one hand, and Horace Bnshnell 
and Charles Loring Brace, on the other. 
Litchfield has been the seat of the first Law 
School in America, of Miss Pierce's Seminary, 
and of the Morris Academy. In the first of 
these schools, John C. Calhoun studied ; in the 
second, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and, for a time, 
her brother, Henry Ward Beecher ; in the 
third, John Brown. Every one of the old 
houses in the town has a story full of interest 
to those who dwell here, and in many instances 
of nearly equal fascination to anyone who 
cares for the history, the biograph}^, the lite- 
rary reminiscences of his country. 

Let no one suppose, however, that the glory 
of Litchfield is all in the past. To be sure, in 
one respect this town can never be like the old 
Litchfield, — a trade center, the fourth town in 
population in the state. Modern industrialism 
has sought the valleys, and this hill town has 
become a summer resort. Once Litchfield was 
famous for its schools, and we should not be 
surprised if the time would soon come when it 
should be known again as an educational 
center ; for where could be found a place more 
suitable for a great school which would make 
the traditions of Miss Pierce's realities once 
more ? 

And even now the men are here who could 
constitute the faculty of a summer Theological 
School that would draw students half across 



PREFACE. 7 

the continent. President Timothy Dwight, 
Professors Hoppin and Harris, — not to know 
these names is a confession of intellectual 
darkness. 

And in the winter time, when this towm is 
supposed to hibernate, even then a Law School 
might be put in operation. Litchfield has 
never lacked since the time of the first Oliver 
Wolcott one or two citizens who have been 
either governor or chief justice, but until these 
last days it has never had a man who has given 
new dignity to both of these offices. Let the 
chief justice preside, and if a coadjutor is 
needed, there is one here whose name for a 
hundred years has carried with it leadership at 
the bar. 

This book is confessedly concerned with the 
days that have passed into history ; it only 
touches the present incidentally, but it has 
been compiled in sight of the park, the church, 
the stores, the life of the town to-day. 

Every citizen of Litchfield should know and 
treasure the memories of this town. They are 
not to be regarded as bits of bric-a-brac, old 
china, and choice linen, to be looked at with 
passing curiosity, and then stored away. Not 
at all, — these memories are the atmosphere in 
which the hills about us are clothed with 
beauty, — they give vitality to the air we 
breathe. 

This Book of Days is necessarily fragment- 



8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

ary, but we hope that the compilation has been 
SO far successful that it will put the reader in 
touch with the humor and pathos, with the 
achievement and heroism, that have made this 
town upon its " Western Hill " illustrious, so 
that whether one's sojourn here be for a week 
or for threescore years and ten, he may feel in 
the life of to-day the stimulus of that which is 
vital in the past, and that he may — 

"At noon-day in the bustle of man's work-time 
Greet the unseen with a cheer ! " 



The editor of these pages takes this oppor- 
tunity to thank the large number of persons 
who have made the work of compiling this 
book possible ; to them he has been indebted 
for information, the loan of pamphlets and 
books, the free access to valuable libraries rich 
in all that pertains to local history. 

The publication of this book at a low price 
has been made possible by the generous sup- 
port of the business men and citizens of Litch- 
field, and by the energetic canvass made by 
a committee of the Ladies Aid Society of the 
church of which the editor is pastor. Mr. Wil- 
liam H. Sanford, G. A. Marvin, editor of /// 
Lite Ji field J/ ills ^ J. Deming Perkins, and D wight 
C. Kilbourn have kindly loaned a few of the 
plates used in this book ; while a number of 
persons have contributed to the expense of its 
illustration. 



PREFACE. 9 

The publishers of the copyrighted books 
from which large citations have been made, 
Harper & Brothers, Fords, Howard & Hurl- 
but, and Houghton, Mifflin & Co., have granted 
the editor privileges for which he gladly makes 
acknowledgment here. A similar courtesy has 
been extended by Governor Roger Wolcott, 
representing the interests of his family in the 
Wolcott Memorial Volume. 

LrrcHFiELD, February 22, 1899. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Wolcott House- 

Oliver Wolcott, Jr., .... 

Tapping Reeve, 

Residence of J. Deminc; Perkins, 

Origen Storrs Seymour, 

The Fuller Elm — Ice Storm of 1S9S, 

Residence of Mrs. H. B. Belden, 

The Blizzard Drift at Dr. H. W. Buel's 

The Tallmadge House, 

Benjamin Tallmadge, .... 

Residence of Col. Georcie B. Sanford, 

Henry W. Buel 

Site of the Beecher House, 

Lyman Beecher, 

North Street, 

The Fire Department Biilding, 
Litchfield before the Fire, 
The Beecher House (recent photograph), 
On Bantam River, .... 

Oliver Wolcott, 

The Casino, 

St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church, 
The Wolcott House — Photograph 1S95, 



Photograph iSgS, Frontispiece. 
Facing 1 7 
19 
23 
32 
37 
38 
47 
49 
50 
59 
60 

65 
82 

84 
87 
91 
100 
102 
108 
no 

113 
114 
(10) 



LIST (^F ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Reeve-Woodrup^f House, . . Facing 117 

The Congregational Church, . . . " 126 

Litchfield Rebuilt, . . . . " 128 

Residence of Prof. J. M. Hoppin, , , " 137 

John H. Hubbard, ....." 152 

The Beecher House, ..,..'■ 157 

The Seymour House, " 162 

The Old Meeting-House, . . , . " 163 

James Gould, '■' 169 

Residence of Mrs. N. R! Child, . . " 172 

Daniel Sheldon, "173 

A Glimpse of West Street, . . . " 176 

Frederick Wolcott, " 179 

Charles B. Andrews, •' 182 

South Street, " 1S5 

GEriRGE C. Woodruff, . . . . . " 197 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, . . " 199 

St. ^Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church, " 204 



For full-page ill u sir at 20ns of the Ha7ukhii7-st and of 
the United States Hotels, see the AdvertisingSiipple- 
7?ient. 



J.ITCHFIEI.I) noOK OF DAYS. 



EXPLANATORY NOTES. 

As vStated in the preface, vSpecial permission has 
been granted by the publishers of copyrighted 1)ooks 
from whicli frequent quotation is made in these 
pages. 

The quotations from members of the Wolcott 
family are taken from the Wolcott Memorial Vol it me; 
those from the Beecher family are taken (unless 
otherwise specified) from M\q Autobiography ami Cor- 
respondence of Ly man Beec/ier, published b}- Harper 
& Brothers. 

In other cases, where simply a name is given at 
the close of a quotation, the matter quoted is the 
report of a conversation with the editor of the Book 
OF Days. 

The quotations from the writings of Henry Ward 
Beecher have been taken, in nian\' instances, not 
directly from the books named, but from that excel- 
lent ccmipilation by Eleanor Kirk, entitled Beec/ier 
as a Humorist, published by Fords, Howard & 
Hurlbut. 

Many brief statements of fact, such as quotations 
from the town records, are taken from the well 
known authorities on local history. Woodruff, 
Kilbourne, and the Ivitchfield County History, — for 
other unsigned paragraphs, the editor is responsible. 



LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 



Ja^dary i. 

1777. — Oliver Wolcott writes a New Year's 
letter to his wife : 

"Take care of your Health; make the cares 
of Life easy. Prosperous and happy Times 
I trust will return to our Country, and that 
God will grant us the Peace and Prosperity of 
former Days, — a Happiness which I most sin- 
cerely covet, tho' I trust I shall never wish 
for Peace with the Loss of the Security of my 
Country. For w^hat is there which we can 
leave our Children equal to the Advantages of 
civil and religious Liberty?" 

1872. — The Shepaug Valley Railroad (as it 
was then called) was opened to the public. 

January 2. 

You will have troubles, but when the}" come 
don't dam them up; let them go down stream 
and you will soon be rid of them. — Lvman 
Beecher. 

Ja9ijary 3. 

O for a boy's appetite I We needed no morn- 
ing bell. Hunger used to awaken us betimes. 

(13) 



14 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

We plunged into our clothes, and darted for 
the kitchen, where stood Rachel, black as night, 
witli a loaf of bread white as milk. She cut a 
slice an inch thick, smooth as a line had meas- 
ured it. It needed neither sauce nor butter. 
It was a mere morsel, sent before, to hold the 
citadel until breakfast could come to the res- 
cue I vSo it was every day, and during- all our 
growing years. — Hexrv Ward Beecher : Star 
Papers. 

JaQdary 4. 

So do thy children, Litchfield, owe to thee, 

i\nd thy hard treatment, what they've come 
to be; — 

A vigorous race from a harsh nursery. 

For when thy skies have smiled, and wept, 
and scowled, 

And thy winds cut, and sighed, and swept, 
and howled. 

And they have borne the various buffeting 

They 've had to bear, — the}^ can stand any- 
thing. — 
John Pierpont : LitcJiJield CoiDity Coitciiiiial. 

Ja9uary 5. 

In the winter of 1740-41, a man came from 
Cornwall to purchase some grain for himself 
and family, who were in great need, and was 
directed to Deacon Buck The stranger soon 
called and made known his errand. The Dea- 
con asked him if he had any uiouey to pay for 



JANUARY. 15 

the grain. He answered affirmatively. "Well," 
said the Deacon, "I can show you where you 
can procure it." Going with the stranger to 
the door, he pointed out a certain house to him, 
saying, "There lives a man who will let you 
have grain for your money. I have some to 
spare, but must keep it for those who have no 
money y — Rev. Grant Powers: Kilbourne s His- 
tory. 

Ja9ijary 6. 

One of the oddest native characters was Mr. 

B , an ardent defender of the doctrine of 

election. One day while " argyfying " with a 
neighbor at dinner, he lifted a morsel of beef 
on his fork, asserting, " I have no more doubt 
of the doctrine of election than that I shall eat 
this meat." With the emphasis of his gesture, 
the meat flew off and was instantly devoured 
by the family dog. — Clarence Deming: Yankees 
and Yankeeisms. 

Jai^dary 7. 

1803. — John W. Birge, born. He became 
major-general in the ill-starred Patriot War in 
Canada, in 1837-8. 

January 8. 

Poganuc was a place where winter stood for 
something. The hill, like all hills in our dear 
New Eno-land, thouo-h beautiful for situation 
in summer, was a howling desolation for about 
six months of the year, sealed down under 



l6 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS. 

snow and drifted over by winds that pierced 
like knives and seemed to search every fiber of 
one's garments, so that the tliickest clothing 
was no protection. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : 
Foganiic People. 

January 9. 

The fire that illuminated the great kitchen 
of the farmhouse was a splendid sight to be- 
hold. It is, alas, with us only a vision and 
memory of the past ; for who in our da3^s can 
afford to keep up the great fireplace, when 
the backlogs were cut from the giants of the 
forest and the forestick was as much as a 
modern man could lift ? And then the glow- 
ing fireplace built thereon ! That architec- 
tural pile of split and seasoned wood, over 
which the flames leaped and danced and 
crackled like rejoicing genii — what a glory it 
was ! The hearty, bright, warm hearth in 
those days stood instead of fine furniture and 
handsome pictures. The plainest room be- 
comes beautiful and attractive by firelight, 
and when men think of a country and home to 
be fought for and defended they think of a 
fireside. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Pogauiic 
People. 

January 10. 

1738. — Ethan Allen born in Litchfield. Two 
years later his parents removed to Cornwall. 

1785. — Oliver Wolcott writes to his son 
Oliver: 




OLIVER WOLCOTT, Jr. 



JANUARY. 17 

"Sir: Your letter of ' the 4th instant is re- 
ceived. The Character of the young Lady, 
whom you mention as the object of your 
Affection, justifies your Choice, and receives 
the Approbation of your Parents. And if you 
shall wait upon her here, when you shall come 
to see us, it will increase the Pleasure of the 
Visit." 

January 11. 

1760. — Oliver Wolcott, Jr., born in the home- 
stead on South street. He succeeded Hamil- 
ton as secretary of the treasury in Washing- 
ton's administration, and was governor of Con- 
necticut i8i7-'27. 

January 12. 

The Litchfield of Wolcott's bo^^hood is de- 
scribed by Gibbs in his Administrations of Wash- 
ington and Adams : 

"At a period much later than this Litchfield 
was on the outskirts of New England civilization 
and presented a very different aspect from its 
now venerable quiet. The pickets which guard- 
ed its first dwellings were not yet decayed. 
The Indian yet wandered through its broad 
streets, and hunters as wild as our present 
borderers, chased the deer and the panther on 
the shores of the lake. The manners of its 
inhabitants were as simple and primitive as 
those of their fathers, a century back, in the 
older settlements on the Connecticut. Trav- 



l8 LirCHFIKl,!) V<()(1K <)V DAYS. 

eling was entirely on horseback, except in win- 
ter, and but a casual intercourse was carried 
on with distant towns. Occasionally and more 
frequently, as they became more interesting, 
tidings reached them from Boston, and even 
from the old world." . 

Ja9dary 13. 

t8ii. — Would now write you a long letter, 
if it were not for several vexing circumstan- 
ces, such as the weather, extremely cold, storm 
violent, and no wood cut ; Mr. Beecher gone ; 
and Sabbath day, with company, a clergyman, 
a stranger ; Catherine sick, Rachel's finger cut 
off, and she crying and groaning with the 
pain. Mr. Beecher is gone to New Hartford 
to preach and did not provide us wood enough 
to last, seeing the weather has grown so ex- 
ceedingly cold. — RoxANA Beecher : Letter to 
Esther Beeeher. 

Ja^ijary 14. 

Three years old was I, when singing, she left 
me, and sang on to heaven where she sings 
evermore. I have only such remembrance of 
her, as you have of the clouds of ten years ago, 
faint, evanescent, and fed by that which I have 
heard of her, and by what my father's thought 
and feeling of her wer^ ; it has come to be so 
much to me that no devout Catholic ever saw 
so much of the Virgin Mary as I have seen in 
my mother, who has been a presence to me 




TAPPING REEVE. 



JANUARY. 19 

ever since I can remember. — Henry Ward 
Beecher : Abbot f s Life. 

Ja^ijary 15. 

Tapping Reeve came to Litchfield a few 
years before tlie Revolution. For a time he 
was chief justice of the State, but his fame 
rests upon the fact that he was the founder in 
1784 of the first Law School in America. He 
was its Principal for nearly forty years. C. G. 
Loring- said of him: "He was, indeed, a most 
venerable man in character and in appearance — 
his thick, gray hair, parted and falling in pro- 
fusion on his shoulders, his voice only a loud 
\ whisper, but distinctly heard by his earnestly 



attentive pupils. He was full of legal learn- 
ing, but invested the law with all the genial 
enthusiasm, and generous feelings and noble 
sentiments of a large heart at the age of eighty, 
and descanted to us with glowing eloquence 
upon the sacredness and majesty of law." 

January 16. 

Tapping Reeve loved the law as a science, 
and studied it philosophically. He considered 
it as the practical application of religious prin- 
ciple to the business affairs of life. He wished 
to reduce it to a certain, S3mimetrical system of 
moral truth. He did not trust to the inspira- 
tion of genius for eminence, but to the results 
of profound and constant study. I seem to see 



20 I.riCHFlELl) BOOK OF DAYS. 

even now, his calm and placid countenance 
shinin^,^ throug-h his abundant locks, as he sat 
poriuijf over his notes in the lecture-room, and 
to hear his shrill whisper as he stood when 
lifivino;- his charge to the jury. — Judge Church: 
IJtcJi field Comity Ccntciiiiial. 

Ja9dary 17. 

The printed catalogue of the Litchfield Law 
School contains a list of graduates from 1798, 
no register having been kept for the first four- 
teen years. Of this number sixteen became 
United vStates Senators ; fifty, Members of Con- 
g-ress ; forty. Judges of higher State Courts ; 
eight. Chief-justices of States ; two, Justices of 
the United States Supreme Court ; ten. Gover- 
nors of vStates ; five, Cabinet Ministers (Cal- 
houn, "Woodbury, Mason, Clayton, and Hub- 
bard) ; and several foreign ministers ; while 
very many were distinguished at the bar. — 
J. D. Champlin, Jr.: Litchfield Hill. 

Jai^ijary 18. 

Judge Reeve delivered his lectures in his 
office. The building stood next to his house, 
but has since been moved, and is a part of Mr. 
Daniels' residence, opposite the Hawkhurst. 
Judge Gould, after he became associated with 
Judge Reeve, also gave his lectures in his own 
law office on North street. This building is 
now known as the Carter tenement, and is 



JANUARY. 21 

located on the Bantam road, one mile from the 
village . 

Ja9aary 19. 

1752. — James Morris, Jr., born. After serving 
with distinction in the Revolutionary War, he 
founded, in 1790, Morris Academ}^, for many 
years one of the most famous schools in New 
England. His Statistical Account of the Towns of 
Litchfield County is one of the early authorities 
on local history. 

Jai^ijary 20. 

Henry Ward Beecher in his Star Papers says 
of his school days : — 

"In winter we were squeezed into the recess 
of the farthest corner, among little boys who 
seemed to be sent to school merely to fill up 
the chinks between the bigger boys. . . . Our 
shoes always would be scraping on the floor, or 
knocking the shins of urchins who were also 
being 'educated.' All of our little legs to- 
gether (poor, tired, nervous, restless legs, with 
nothing to do) would fill up the corner with 
such a noise, that every ten or fifteen minutes 
the master would bring down his two-foot hick- 
ory ferule on the desk with a clap that sent 
shivers through our hearts, to think how that 
would have felt if it had fallen somewhere else; 
and then with a look that swept us all into 
utter extremity of stillness, he would cry, 
'Silence ! in that corner.'" 



22 l.riCHFlKLn BOOK OF DAYS. 

Ja^ijary 21 

iyy(3, — Litchfield men enlist for eig-ht weeks' 
service "to defeat certain Wicked Purposes 
formed by the instruments of Ministerial Ty- 
ranny " 

1777. — Oliver Wolcott writes to his wife on 
the anniversary of their wedding: "You are 
more especially intitled to a Letter of this 
Date, as it is an important Anniversary in our 
Lives which can not fail of Producing in me 
the most agreeable Recollections. My distant 
Situation does not diminish my Regard for you 
and my Family. I feel the warmest Wishes for 
your Welfare, and hope that it will please God to 
bestow upon you and our Children every Bless- 
ing. I am not able to give you the least Advice 
in the Conduct of my Business. Your own Pru- 
dence in the Direction of it, I have no doubt 
of, I only wish that the cares which must 
oppress you were less. But if the present 
Troubles shall terminate in the future Peace 
and Security of this Country (which I trust 
will be the case), the present Evils and Incon- 
veniences of Life ought to be borne with cheer- 
fulness." 

January 22. 

All Litchfield lias read and enjoyed Mrs. 
Jeanie (xould Lincoln's charming story: — An 
Umc'i//i/ig Maid. It is easy to pass over some 
minor inaccuracies, such as where the author 
speaks of the Wolcott house as a manor house, 



JANUARY. 23 

or has the King George statue melted after the 
Fairfield Raid. And while no British officer 
was ever kept prisoner in the north chamber, 
yet it is certain that if Geoffrey Yorke had been 
kept in durance there, Mariann would have 
taken Betty's part, and the romance would 
have run its happy course in actual history. 

From the standpoint of history, the author 
has made one serious mistake which it is hard 
to overlook. She leads the reader to believe 
that Mrs. Wolcott died before the Revolution. 
Had this been so, it is doubtful if Oliver Wol- 
cott's name had been signed to the Declaration 
of Independence. The reason why it was pos- 
sible for him to be away from home in the 
interest of his country during the greater part 
of the Revolution was that his wife was a 
woman thoroughly capable in the manage- 
ment of the interests of his home and business. 
If we remember the patriotism of Oliver Wol- 
cott, we should not forget the equal devotion 
of Laura Collins, his wife. 

Ja9ijary 23. 

Although Julius Deming died in 1838, his 
fame as a business man has never been 
eclipsed. He came here from Lyme about 
1 781, and for over fifty years was one of the 
foremost merchants in the State, importing 
many of his goods directly from London. The 
great house he built on North street was a 



24 LI remiF. 1,1) iu^ok of days. 

source of wonder in its day, and now is one of 
I lie best examples in New Ii^ngdand of the 
liousehold architecture of a century ago. 

JaQdary 24. 

1791. — A post-office is opened in Collier's 
Printin-- Office. The Post will ride to New 
York once a fortni^i^-ht, and to Hartford once a 
week. 

January 25 

Lonj;- live the winter nig-hts, with the homely 
fare of apples and nuts, and no stronger drink 
than cider ; and a merry crowd of boys and 
girls, with here and there the spectacled old 
folks ; all before a roaring hickory-fire, in an 
old fashioned fireplace, big as the Western 
horizon with the sun g"oing- down in it, and 
with a roguish stick of chestnut wood in it, 
which opens sucli a fusilade of snaps and 
cracks as sets the girls to screaming, and 
throws out such mischievous coals upon the 
calico dresses as obliges every humane boy to 
run to the relief of his sweetheart, all on fire ! 
— Henry Ward Beecher : £ves and Ears. 

Ja9ijary 26. 

For several years Aaron Burr made his 
home at his sister's, — the first Mrs. Reeve_ 
During this time he studied theology for a 
while with Dr. Bellamy at Bethlehem. Bel- 
lamy was one of the greatest controversialists 



JANUARY. 25 

of his time. His library was made up chiefly 
of the works of infidels and heretics. Those 
books evidently prevailed in Burr's mind over 
his teacher's arguments. Burr and Reeve, 
what a contrast ! the one ruled God out of his 
thoughts ; the other has made this hill holy 
ground. 

JaQijary 27. 

1776. — Jtidge Reeve writes to Aaron Burr : 
" Amid the lamentations for the loss of a 
brave, enterprising general [Montgomery], 
your escape from such imminent danger to 
which you have been exposed has afforded us 
the greatest satisfaction. The news of the 
unfortunate attack upon Quebec arrived among 
us on the 13th of this month. .... Your 
sister enjoys a middling state of health. She 
has many anxious hours on your account ; but 
she tells me that, as she believes you may serve 
the country in the business in which you are 
now employed, she is contented that you should 
remain in the army. It must be an exalted 
public spirit that could produce such an effect 
upon a sister so affectionate as yours," 

January 28. 

Conscience, for the obedient, has sounds 
more pleasant than music; but for the trans- 
gressor, peals more terrific than thunder. — 
Lyman Beecher. 



26 LITCHFIELD BOC^K OF DAYS. 

January 29. 

()ne day a prosperous old farmer came into 
Judo-e Gould's office and said," I wish you would 
draw up my will." " Very well," said Judge 
(iould ; " give me some idea of what you want 
done." The farmer was imbued with the old- 
time notions of the property rights of women. 
His unmarried daughters had for years helped 
accumulate his property; but when it came to 
to making his will the father had no thought 
of them, but wished to leave all he had to his 
sons. When Judge Gould found this out, he 
exclaimed, " I won't draw up any such will, and 
if I were a daughter of yours I'd dance on your 
grave before you'd lain in it a month ! " — J. 
Dkminc; Perkins. 

Ja9uary 30. 

Judge Gould was a critical scholar, and al- 
ways read with his pen in hand, whether law 
book, or books of fiction or fancy, for which he 
indulged a passion. In the more abstruse sub- 
jects at law, he was more learned than Judge 
Reeve, and as a lecturer more lucid and m.e- 
thodical. The Common Law he had searched 
to the bottom, and he knew it all — its princi- 
ples, and the reasons from which they were 
drawn. As an advocate, he was not a man of 
impassioned eloquence, but clear and logical, 
employing language elegant and chaste. — 
Judge Church : Lit cJi field County Centennial . 



JANUARY. 27 

Ja^ijary 31. 

I never had any trouble with my people. If 
anything came tip, instead of going- and trying 
to put broken glass together, I always tried to 
preach well, and it swallow^ed up everything. 
— Lyman Beecher. 



pebmary i. 

It seems odd to think of Litchfield as a 
nKinufactiirin<^- town, yet when Morris wrote 
his Statistical Account, not far from 1815, there 
were in existence "4 forges for iron; i slitting 
mill; I oil-mill; i paper-mill; i nail manufactory; 
6 fulling-mills; 5 grist-mills; 18 saw-mills; 5- 
large tanneries, besides sundry others on a small 
scale; 2 comb manufactories; 2 hatters' shops; 2 
carriage makers; 2 carding machines for wool; 
I machine for making wooden clocks; i cotton 
manufactory." 

We who know Litchfield as a summer resort 
feel more at hcnue when we turn to another 
page of his Account and read, " Few places yield 
finer views. From some of the eminences 
may be seen the hills on the eastern side of the 
Connecticut River, and the Catskill Mountains 
on the west of the Hudson. One of them is 
about a mile northwest of the court-house, from 
which there is an enchanting view." 

pebmary 2. 

Waggons, drawn either by one or two horses, 
are much used by the inhabitants of Litchfield. 
The first pleasure carriage (a chair) was 

(28) 



FEBRUARY. 29 

brought into this town b}^ Mr. Matthews, mayor 
of New York, in the year 1776, and is still in 
use here; the first umbrella in the year 1772. — 
AI orris Statistical Account. 

This author also states that there are in the 
town " I phaeton, i coachee, and 46 two-wheel 
pleasure carriages." 

pebmary 3. 

1776. — Oliver Wolcott writes from Philadel- 
phia, — " The Ladies, I hope, will still make 
themselves contented to live without Tea for 
the good of their country." 

pebmary 4. 

181 9. — Harriet makes just as many wry faces, 
and loves to be laughed at as much as ever. 
Henry does not improve much in talking, but 
speaks very thick. — Letter from the Beecher 
Household. 

Children grow^ up — nothing on earth grows 
so fast as children. It was but 5"esterday and 
that lad was playing with tops, a buoyant boy. 
He is a man, and gone now. — Henry Ward 
Beecher: Children . 

pebmary 5, 

Second-hand text-books are common enough 
now, but a hundred years ago, when books cost 
more, the stoutly bound volumes often passed 



30 



LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS. 



through a half dozen hands before they were 
laid aside. Mr. J. Deming Perkins has in his 
library an algebra of this kind which was used 
in Yale College and is inscribed with the names 
of six owners, — Uriah Tracy, Harvey Chase, 
A. B. Reeve, and J. Deming, Jr., among them. 
The last named made this entry, — " Engaged 
this book to A. B. Reeve on condition that he 
lets a lad from Litchfield have it in preference 
to any other, and exacts the same promise from 
him to whom he sells it, ad iiifinititin!' 

pebmary 6. 

About 1863, Edwin McNeill, who had been 
a successful railroad builder elsewhere, re- 
turned to his native town. He was instru- 
mental in having a new road put through to 
the Naugatuck station. Then he tried to have 
the Boston & Erie Road, then stopping at 
Waterbury, take a northern route not far from 
Litchfield. Failing here, he projected the She- 
paug Valley Railroad. The stock was taken 
by towns along the line, and by private parties 
to the amount of $400,000. By the time the 
road was finished, a first and second mortgage 
had been placed upon it to meet the expendi- 
ture of $1,000,000 involved in construction and 
equipment. As a financial project, the road 
brought disaster to all concerned. Mr. Mc- 
Neill died a year or so after the completion of 
the road, leaving an estate nearly wrecked by 



FEBRUARY 



31 



the venture. As a monument of public spirit, 
and as a permanent benefit to the towns along 
the line, the railroad has been an tmqualified 
success. — Condensed from an artiele by George A. 
Hiekox^ Lite h field Enquirer^ Mar eh 14, i^Qj- 

pebmary 7. 

During- the building of the Shepaug, I 
chanced to meet W. H. Barnum on a railroad 
train. He introduced me to another fellow- 
passenger, Collis P. Huntington, who evinced 
much interest in the Shepaug. " When you 
you get that road finished," he said, " I want 
you to send me a pass. I have every reason to 
remember the vShepaug Valley, for when a 
young man, I trudged through it as a pack- 
peddler. Every dog in all that region barked 
at me." — J. Deming Perkins. 

pebmary 8. 

When I was soliciting subscriptions to the 
stock of the Shepaug Valley Railroad, I met 
with a great deal of very stubborn resistance. 
I recollect very distinctly one rich farmer down 
the Valley who would have nothing to do with 
the scheme but denounce it. Some years after 
as I was riding on the cars, this man was a fel- 
low passenger. He came across the aisle, and 
said : " Mr. Perkins, do you remember me ? " 
" Oh, yes, very well indeed, " I replied." When 



^2 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS. 

we met last," said he, " I did not believe much 
in this railroad, but if any one proposed to take 
the tracks up now, there would be a riot in the 
valley." — J. Deming Perkins. 

pebmary 9. 

1 804. — Origcn Storrs Seymour, born. He was 
a lifelong resident of the village. For several 
terms he was a representative in the General 
Assembly, and in 1850 was speaker of the House. 
After serving four years as congressman, he 
was made judge of the Supreme Court of Con- 
necticut, holding office from 1855 to 1863, and 
from J 870 to 1874. He retired from the bench 
at the age of seventy, having been chief justice 
during his last year of service. From 1865 to 
1880 he was a member of every Triennial Con- 
vention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

1896.— The Methodist Episcopal Church of 
Bantam is organized. 

pebmary 10. 

1824. — Thomas K. Beecher, born. Elmira, 
New York, claims him as one of its foremost 
citizens, — pastor of Park Church for a life- 
time. 

pebmary 11. 

1840. — The Housatonic Railroad opened as 
far as New Milford. With the building of this 
road, the New York and Albany stage, which 




ORIGEN STORRS SEYMOUR. 



FEBRUARY. ^^ 

us3d to roll through these Litchfield streets at 
unearthly hours in the morning, is heard no 
longer. Or are the older inhabitants right, 
and can there still be heard above the winter 
gale the rumbling of the heavily laden stage, 
and the hoof -beats of the four strong horses ? 

pebrdary 12. 

Judge Seymour was eminently and prover- 
bially kind to all, high or low, rich or poor. 
His every act, and look, and word gave evidence 
of this. It was the recognition of this trait 
that called forth the facetious and rather ex- 
travagant remark I once heard from a lawyer 
of this state, to the effect that if Judge Sey- 
mour decided a case against a man, the latter 
always thought he had won the case. — ^ Judge 
Loom IS : Address on Judge Seymour. 

pebmary 13. 

1899. — After a week of bitterly cold weather, 
when the mercury at its highest was only a 
few degrees above zero, and at its lowest 
threatened to disappear altogether, the blind- 
ing snow of a great storm filled the air. 
Nothing but the blizzard of 1888 has surpassed 
it. Drifts ten feet high were common enough; 
in some cases, the snow reached to second- 
story windows. From Monday noon till 
Wednesday night, Litchfield was tmder the 
snow blockade. 



34 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

pebmary 14. 

Judge Seymour's conduct on the bench is 
sketched by ex-Gov. Hubbard in an address 
before the Hartford Bar : " I have never 
known a judg-e more scrupulously watchful of 
tlic movements of a trial, more intent on the 
precise mattcu' in hand, more completely totiis 
in illis , . . He used, as you will remem- 
ber, to take very few notes of evidence; but his 
ears and memory were marvelously alert to all 
the disclosures of the case. He had a habit of 
listening to an argument with closed eyes — 
owing, I suppose, to w^eakness of vision; but 
how sleepless his attention and reason were ! 
and how those shut eyes of his used to open 
with mild surprise, sometimes with expressive 
reproach, at any perversion of fact or law, or 
any other abuse either in matter or manner of 
the just liberties of argument. A casual ob- 
server might have supposed him a vSleepy, if 
not a sleeping, judge. But he was never thus 
for a single instant." 

pebmary 15. 

Judge Seymour was made chairman of the 
commission which was appointed in 1878 to 
prepare the new code of civil procedure. " By 
this work more than all else he has done," says 
ex-Gov. Hubbard, " he has left his mark on the 
jurisprudence of the State. The fame of the 



FEBRUARY 



35 



best lawyer ordinarily goes with him into his 
coffin; but I cannot doubt that this service of 
his will make his name and fame abide in 
honor, w^hen the lives of the rest of us are as a 
watch in the night that is past." — Address before 
the Hartford Bar. 

p(^bmary i6. 

Origen Storrs Seymour had made an envia- 
ble record as judge . of the Superior Court, 
J 855-63. Upon the expiration of his term of 
office in the latter year, the Democrats were 
defeated after the bitterest conflict the State 
has seen. Judge Seymour was a Democrat, 
and the Republican legislature refused to re- 
elect him. In 1870, however, a Republican 
legislature appointed him to the Supreme 
Court. In 1873 he became chief justice, retir- 
ing a year later because reaching the constitu- 
tional limit of aofc. 



"fc." 



pebrdary 17. 

The great white house on South street, two 
doors beyond the Beckwith block, is the home 
of Mr. Morris W. Seymour. The house was built 
by Ozias Seymour, and when it was ready for 
occupancy, his son. Judge Seymour, at that 
time a young boy, carried into the house the 
first article taken there. In that house, he 
made his home for the rest of his life. 



-6 LriCIIIIKI.I) I'.OOK OF DAYS. 

pebruary 18. 

vSucli a thin<4- as a novel was not to be found 
in our house. And I well reeolleet the des- 
pairing and hungry glances with which I used 
to search through father's library, meeting only 
the same grim sentinels, BcIFs Scniioiis, Bogiies 
A'ssdvs, Boiuicfs In(]uir\\ Toplady on Prcdcstina- 
iioii, Jlorselcys Tracts. There, to be sure, was 
Hanncr on Solomon s Song, which I read and 
nearly got by heart, because it told about the 
same sort of things I had once read of in the 
Arabian Nights. And there was The State of 
the Clergy during the FreneJi Revolution, w^hich had 
horrible stories in it stranger than fiction. — 
Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



Febmary 19. 

In Lyman Beecher's library, " there was a 
side closet full of documents, a weltering ocean 
of pamphlets, in which I dug and toiled for 
hours to be repaid by disinterring a delicious 
morsel of Don Quixote that had once been a 
book but was now lying in forty or fifty dissecta 
membra, amid Calls, Appeals, Sermons, Essays, 
Reviews, Replies, Rejoinders. The turning up 
of such a fragment seemed like the rising of an 
enchanted island out of an ocean of mud." — 
Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



FEBRUARY. 37 

pebmary 20, 

1809. — Henry W. Wessells, born. What 
would we not give for an autobiography of this 
veteran soldier ? General Wessells graduated 
at West Point in 1832, won his spurs in the 
Seminole war, and was given a gold-mounted 
sword for his valor on Mexican battlefields. 
He was in California in '49, — saw no end of 
service on the frontiers, till called East in 1861. 
Wounded at Fair Oaks, he soon took the field 
again; towards the close of the war he was 
captiired by the Confederates. 

" Gen. Wessells," said the Enquirer at the time 
of his death, "was a man of quiet demeanor, 
the furthest possible from the domineering old 
soldier of the stage, temperate in habit and 
language, as clean and pure, as well as gallant, 
a soldier as ever spent his life in the hard mil- 
itary service of our regular army." 

1898 — The ice storm which began Saturday 
evening, February 19th, was at its height, and 
continued with but little abatement for forty- 
eight hours. This proved the most destructive 
storm on record. Every tree in the town .suf- 
fered. Many were snapped off ten or fifteen 
feet from the ground. The venerable elm in 
front of Mr. Fuller's, laden with tons of ice, 
crashed into the street. For days the sidewalks 
were impassable, filled with a tangled mass of 
broken limbs. Millions of icicles hung from 

3 



38 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

the electric wires which sagged in great loops, 
and finally broke. The very blades of grass 
stood up stalagmites of ice. 

pebmary 21. 

1^67 — Abraham Bradley, born. From 1799 
to 1829 he was First Assistant Postmaster-Gen- 
eral of the United States. He drew and pub- 
lished a map of all the post roads in the Union 
with the post-offices and distances clearly de- 
fined. 

pebmary 22. 

1757. — Ephraim Kirby, born. He published 
in Litchfield the first law reports ever issued in 
America. He was appointed in 1804 United 
States Judge for the Territory of Louisiana, 
but died while on his way to the South. 

pebmary 23. 

The house on South street now the residence 
of Mrs. H. B. Belden, is one of the most nota- 
ble in the village, both for its present attract- 
iveness and its past history. Here lived the 
last King's attorney of the county, Reynold 
Marvin. His daughter, Ruth, married Ephraim 
Kirby. Their grandson, Kirby vSmith, was the 
famous Southern general. Just north of the 
house stood a little office where Col. Kirby pre- 
pared the first law reports ever published in 
this country. 



FEBRUARY. 



39 



pebmary 24. 

1786. — I suppose you expect to hear of a 
wedding or some such high matter, but I assure 
you I have better news to tell you, which is no 
other than this, tJiat your sister MaiHami is not 
going to he married at all. The night after you 
left us, Mr. W. and his family, which consisted 
of Mrs. G. and his boy Nat and his dog Caper, 
arrived here, and Saturday they set off for 
Albany, but before they left us, it was agreed 
that there should be a total cessation of hostili- 
ties from this time henceforth and forever, 
Amen. I could add hallelujah, for my very soul is 
in raptures at the deliverance. . . . You may 
tell people that this business is at an end, but do 
not show this letter to any living mortal. . . 

In true singleness and sincerity of heart, I am 
my dear brother, your loving and affectionate 
sister until death, Mariann Wolcott. 

Mariann Wolcott was in very truth An Un- 
willing Maid. She did not marry Mr. W., 
neither did she marry (as the story book says) 
Geoffrey Yorke, late in His Majesty's service. 
She became the wife of Chauncey Goodrich of 
Hartford, a leading citizen of the State in his 
day, lieutenant-governor, congressman, and 
United States Senator. 

pebmary 25. 

1810. — Lyman Beecher preached his trial 
sermons in Litchfield. He was pastor here for 
sixteen years. 



40 



T.TTCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 



pebruary 26. 

A Mr. B. , before driving from his farm 

lo town used to delay long delivering what he 
called his " last words." His vexed hired man 

at last broke out, " Mr. B. , you'd be an 

awful bad man to die ; you'd have so many last 
words that the undertaker's bill would come in 
before yer was dead." — Clarencp: Deming : 
Yiifikccs and Yankecisnis. 

pebmary 27. 

Two years before the outbreak of the Revo- 
lution, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., then a young boy, 
made his first trip to New Haven. On his way 
thither, he tells us, he met Parson Leaven- 
worth : "On inquiring my name and placing 
his hands on my head, he inquired whether I 
intended, if I was able to be like old Noll, a 
Republican and King Killer." 



pebmary 28. 

The old musical bell up in the open belfry 
was busy tolling. It was the only thing that 
was allowed to work on Sunday, the bell and 
the minister. The bell rope was always an ob- 
ject of desire and curiosity to our young days. 
It ran up into such dark and mysterious spaces. 
What there was up in tliose pokerish heights in 
the belfry tower we did not know, but some- 
thing that made our flesh creep. Once we ven- 



FEBRUARY. 4I 

tiired to pull that rope. It was a bold and ven- 
turesome thing we knew. But a sorcery was on 
us. It came gently and easily to the hand. 
We pulled again. " Dong ! dong ! " went the 
bell. The old sexton put his head out of the 
door when, on that particular morning, service 
had begun, and said in a very solemn and low 
tone, " Boy ! boy, you little d — — , you ! " and 
much more I presume, but I did not wait for it, 
but cut round to the other door and sat all 
church time trembling,, and wondering whether 
he would " tell my pa ; " and if he did, what he 
would say, and more especially what he would 
do. — Henry Ward Beecher: Going to Meeting. 

pebrdary 29 

When I was a boy, nothing suited me so well 
as to have my father whip me w^hen my clothes 
were on. Then I could bear it with the most 
equanimity. It was when he took me at ad- 
vantage in the morning before I was dressed, 
that I did not like whippings. — Henry Ward 
Beecher : TJie Confliets of Life. 



The month of March had dawned over the 
slippery, snow-clad hills of Pogannc. The cus- 
tom that enumerates this as among the spring- 
months was in that region the most bitter irony. 
Other winter months were simple winter, cold, 
sharp, and hard enough, but March was winter 
with a practical application driven in by winds 
that pierced through joints and marrow. Not 
an icicle of all the stalactites which adorned the 
fronts of houses had so much as thought of 
thawing ; the snowbanks still lay in white bil- 
lows above the tops of the fences ; the roads, 
through which the ox-sleds of the farmers 
crunched and squeaked their way were cut 
down through heavy drifts, and there was still 
the best prospect in the world for future snow- 
storms ; but yet it was called " spring." — Har- 
riet Beecher Stowe • Foo-anuc People. 

fHarel; 2. 

1716.— Col. William Whiting, John Marsh, 
Thomas vSeymour, committee for Hartford, and 
John Eliot, Daniel Griswold, vSamuel Rockwell, 
committee for Windsor, acquire from the In- 

(42) 



MARCH. 



43 



dians the title to the land of the original town- 
ship of Bantam or Litchfield. The price paid 
was ^15 ; the deed was signed at Woodbury. 

n)arel? 3. 

As some of our readers may be curious to 
know the names of the Indians mentioned in 
the paragraph for March 2, we record them 
here : Chusquenoag, Corkscrew, Quiump, Mag- 
nash, Sepunkum, Poni, Wonposet, Suckqun- 
nokqueen, Toweecume, Mansumpansh, Kehow, 
and Norkgontonckquy. 

fnarel? 4. 

^'' Mojiorandiiin. — Before the executing of this 
instrument [the deed of March 2, 17 16], it is to 
be understood that the grantors above named 
have reserved to themselves a piece of ground 
sufficient for their hunting houses near a 
mountain called Mount Tom." 

(T\arel? 5. 

" A blue bird ! Impossible, so early in March. 
You must be luistaken." 

" No, come to the door, you can hear him 
just as plain." 

And sure enough on the highest top of the 
great button-ball tree opposite the house sat 
the little blue angel singing with all his might, 
— a living sapphire dropped down from the 
walls of the beautiful city above. — Harriet 
Beecher Stowe : Foganuc People. 



44 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

fT)arel7 6. 

1894.— Rev. D. D. T. McLaughlin writes the 
following- lines : 

TO THE FIRST BLUEBIRD. 
Welcome, little bluebird, 

Perched upon the topmost bough ; 
How thy note, anew heard, 

Lifts me from the miry slough. 
O, so blithe and joyous. 

With thy whistle shriU ; 

What, would care annoy us, 

With determined will ? 

Welcome, little bluebird, 

Harbinger of joyous spring ; 
How that note, anew heard, 

Wakes my soul again to sing. 
Bring along the chorus 

Of the feathered throng ; 
Music warbling o'er us 

All the summer long. 

Courage, little bluebird. 

Though the chilling storm thou meet ; 
For that note, anew heard, 

Says, " The Spring you soon will greet.'' 
Yes, the buds are swelling, 

Winter, hie thee home ; 
For that note keeps telling, 

" Spring has almost come." 

Welcome, little bluebird. 

With thy whistle, strong and clear ; 
For that note, anew heard, 

Brings again my childhood's cheer. 
He who rules the seasons. 

Cares for even thee ; 
So my glad heart reasons, 

He will care for me. 



MARCH. 42 

(T)arel? 7. 

1757. — Ashbel Baldwin, born. He was or- 
dained deacon by Bishop Seabury at Middle- 
town, 1785. His ordination was the first Prot- 
estant Episcopal ordination in the United 
States. From 1785-93 he was rector of St. 
Michael's. 

(X\arQ\) 8 

It sometimes happened, that when we were 
busy about the " chores," we discovered a nest 
brimming full of hidden eggs. The hat was the 
bonded warehouse, of course. But sometimes 
it was a cap not of suitable capacity. Then 
the pocket came into play, and chiefly the skirt 
pockets. Of course, we intended to transfer 
them immediately after getting into the house; 
for eggs are as dangerous in the pocket, though 
for different reasons, as powder would be in a 
forge man's pocket. And so, having finished 
the evening's work and put the pin into the sta- 
ble door, we sauntered toward the house, be- 
hind which, and right over Chestnut Hill, the 
broad moon stood showering all the east with 
silver twilight. All earthly cares and treas- 
ures were forgot in the dreamy pleasure ; 
and at length entering the house, — supper 
already delayed for us, — we drew up the chair 
and peacefully sunk into it, with a suppressed 
and indescribable crunch and liquid crackle 
underneath us, which brought us up again in 



^6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS, 

the liveliest manner, and with outcries which 
seemed made up of all the hen's cackles of all 
the eggs which were now holding carnival in 
our pockets ! Facilis Jcscensi/s Avcrni, sed rev- 
ocarc gradiim, etc., which means it is easy to 
put eggs into your pocket, but how to get them 
out again, that's the question. And it was the 
question ! Such a hand-dripping business, — 
such a scene when the slightly angry mother 
and the disgusted maid turned the pockets 
inside out ! 

We were very penitent ! It should never 
happen again ! And it did not, — for a month 
or two. Henry Ward Beecher : Eyes and Ears. 

/T)arel7 9. 

We wish our neighbors would only lend us 
an urchin or two to make a little noise in these 
premises. A house without children ! It is 
like a lantern, and no candle ; a garden, and no 
flowers ; a brook, and no water gurgling and 
gushing through its channel. — Henry Ward 
Beecher : CJiildrcii. 

(T)arel7 10. 

Mrs, Reeve [the Judge's second wife] was the 
largest woman I ever saw, with a full ruddy 
face that had no pretensions to beauty ; but her 
strong and cultivated mind, her warm and gen- 
erous feelings, and her remarkable conversa- 
tional powders made her a universal favorite. 



MARCH. 



47 



She was both droll and witty, while she made so 
much sport of her own personal appearance 
that it removed all feeling- of its disadvantages. 
— Catherine Beecher. 

(T)arel? ii. 

I wish every day I could go down with you 
to see Mrs. Reeve and the Judge, and regret 
that I did not see them oftener when I was 
where I could. I am resolved, when I come 
again, to see them every day. I charge you to 
improve your opportunites of visiting- them 
faithfully, for you will not often meet their like 
in this world. In the next we shall have no 
lack of such society — I mean in a better 
world. — Mary Hubbard : Letter to Mrs. Beecher. 

(T)arel? 12. 

1888. — The wind blew a perfect blizzard all 
day and the drifting and falling snow made 
even main streets almost impassable. Monday 
night the storm continued with increasing fury, 
and buildings rocked as though in a storm at 
sea. — Enquirer. 

(T)arGl? 13. 

1888. — On Tuesday morning the wind had 
lessened, though still blowing a gale, with the 
thermometer at or near zero. . . . The 
most remarkable drifts are at Dr. [H. W.] 



48 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

Biiel's. One, a little west of the house, r.ses 
about 20 feet, to a level with the eaves. There 
is an addition on the west of Dr. Buel's house, 
reaching- about to the eaves, which is almost 
completely covered by the snow, so that our 
reporter, walking along the top of the drift, 
passed completely over the roof of this part of 
the house, and down on the northern side. 
There is a drift on the east which is even 
higher, shutting up one of the library windows 
completely, and reaching nearly to the top of 
one of the large firs which form a hedge on that 
side of the house. — Enquirer. 

The last of this drift did not disappear till 
June. 

n)arel7 14. 

1888. — The wind is northeast, and consider- 
able snow is still falling. People are about on 
snow shoes, "skees," and snow shoes extempo- 
rized out of boards, some carrying groceries to 
those in great want. . . . Little business is 
doing. Most of the stores are closed. A few 
are open with people standing about compar- 
ing notes about tunneling to their woodsheds, 
drifts over second-story windows, ancl other 
marvels of the great storm. — Enquirer, 

It was not until Friday, March i6th, that 
the vShcpaug was running. A cut below Lake 
Station was drifted in to the depth of twenty- 
two feet. 



MARCH. 



49 



marel? 15. 

Col. Benjamin Tallmadg-e, the friend of 
Washington and Lafayette, and one of the most 
picturesque figures of the Revolutionary War, 
was a native of Long Island. He came to 
Litchfield at the close of the war. and resided 
here for over fifty years. 

(Harel? 16. 

1784. — Col. Tallmadge married Mary Floyd, 
daughter of Gen. Floyd of Mastic, Long Island, 
a signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
He ha I previously purchased of Thomas vShel- 
don tae property still known as the Tallmadge 
Place. In Old Litchfield Houses it is stated that 
'' in the southeast room of his residence, the 
Colonel had his office, and here every morning 
his wife used to powder his queue." 

This house was owned for twelve years by 
Gideon H. Hollister. In the southeast room 
of the second floor, so Mrs. Hollister tells me, 
he wrote his History of Connecticut. 

The house is owned at present by Mrs. W. C. 
Noyes, a granddaughter of Col. Tallmadge. 

(T)aret? 17. 

Col. Tallmadge was rather above the ordi= 
nary stature, well proportioned, dignified, and 
commanding". His step, even in his last years, 
was firm and elastic, his body erect, and his 



qo LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. 

whole carriage possessed of a military dignity, 
in which was combined the model of both the 
soldier and the gentleman. His countenance 
was indicative of intelligence, firmness, and 
sincerity. — Laurens P. Hickok : Add/ ess on 
Col. Tallmadi:!;c. 

/T)arel? i8. 

Col. Tallmadge was a member of Congress 
from 1800 to 1816. "He was appointed on 
some of the most important committees, espe- 
cially that on military affairs, of which he was 
for some time the chairman. His religions 
character while in Congress was so well under- 
stood and so highly appreciated by the Chris- 
tian public, that petitions involving religious 
interests were generally committed to him to 
be presented before the House. — Laurens P. 
Hickok : Address on Col. Tallmadge. 

/T)arel? 19. 

To hear Dr. Lyman Beecher read the Bible 
at family prayer in such an eager, earnest tone 
of admiring delight, with such an indescribable 
air of intcntncss and expectancy, as if the book 
had just been handed him out of heaven, or as 
if a seal therein was just about to be loosed, 
was enough t(^ impress one w^ith the feeling 
that he was ever cui the search into the deep 
things of God's word. — Charles Beecher. 



^i. 



Ol^-.:^^-^^ 



MARCH. 



5T 



fT\arel7 20. 

One thing is certain, the custom of family 
prayers, such as it was, was a great comfort. . 
Even though the chapter were one that she 
could not by possibility understand a word of, 
yet it put her in mind of things in the same dear 
book that she did understand ; things that gave 
her strength to live and hope and die by, and it 
was enough ! Her faith in the invisible Friend 
was so strong that she needed to but touch the 
hem of his garment: Even a table of geneal- 
ogies out of /lis book was a sacred charm, an 
amulet of peace. — Harriet Beecher Stowe : 
Fogani/c People. 

(T\arGl7 21. 

Judge Reeve, as eminently as John, might be 
called the loving disciple. I am aware that 
with many intellect is idolized, and the affec- 
tions depreciated, but in a world where intel- 
lect was common, and unfeeling selfishness is 
common, a heart filled naturally and by grace 
with the fullness of love is like the sun dis- 
pelling the darkness and dissolving the ice of 
the frozen regions, and calling into being by 
its rays, vegetation and life and joy. — Lvman 
Beecher : Address on /inline Reeve. 

(T)arel7 22. 

1777. — Oliver Wolcott had heara from Dr. 
Smith that the family had been inoculated for 



52 LirCHFlELl) BOOK OF DAYS. 

smalli)ox, and writes from Philadelphia to his 
wife : '' I pereeive that Mariana has had it bad, 
he writes very hard. I am heartily sorry for 
what the little Child has suffered, and very 
mueh want to see her. If she has by this lost 
some of her Beauty, whieh I hope she has not, 
vet I well know she might spare much of it and 
retain as mueh as most of her Sex possesses." 

1837. — The ice storm of this and the succeed- 
ing day damaged timber and orchards in the 
town to the extent of $100,000. 

/])arel? 23. 

1 72 1. — The first white child is born in Litch- 
field. Her name was Eunice Griswold. She 
married Solomon Buel. 

[\\arQ\) 24. 

1802. — Charles P. Huntington, born. He 
became judge of the Superior Court in the city 
of Boston. 

marel? 25. 

Mother was an enthusiastic horticulturalist in 
all the small ways that limited means allowed. 
Her brother John, in New York, had just sent 
her a small parcel of fine tulip bulbs. I remem- 
ber rummaging these out of an obscure corner 
of the nursery one day when she was gone out, 
and being stronglv seized with the idea that 



MARCH. 



53 



they were good to eat, and using all the little 
English I then possessed to persuade my broth- 
ers that these were onions such as grown peo- 
ple ate, and would be very nice for us. So we 
fell to and devoured the whole. . . . Then 
mother's serene face appeared at the nursery 
door. ... I remember there was not even 
a momentary expression of impatience, but that 
she sat down and said, " My dear children, what 
you have done makes mamma very sorry ; 
those were not onion roots, but roots of beauti- 
ful flowers ; and if you had let them alone, ma 
would have had next summer in the garden 
great beautiful red and yellow flowers such as 
you never saw." — Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

n)arel7 26. 

When I was a law student (1823-25) a few 
old gentlemen still retained the dress of the 
Revolution. It was a powdered queue, white 
topped boots, silk stockings, and breeches with 
buckles. I can remember to have seen David 
Daggett, chief justice, and a half dozen others, 
walking in the streets with this dignified dress. 
It is vain to say that the present dress is at all 
equal to it, — in what ought to be one of the 
objects of good dress, — to give an idea of dig- 
nity and respect. — E. D. Mansfield : Personal 
Memories. 



54 



LII'CIIl U'.l.l) HOOK OF DAYS. 



(Harel? 27. 

At Easter-tidc, when winter striigf^les in vain 
ai^-ainst the on-eoming spring, and wdien the 
words, " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to 
dust " fade out before the radiance of "I am 
the resurrection and the life," the " quiet gate " 
on the Torrington road becomes the entrance 
into the larger life beyond. 

The lines quoted under March 28th, were 
written in boyhood by Prof. E. T. McLaughlin. 
All that is mortal of him rests in the God's- 
Acre of which he sings, but the soul of him has 
seen and heard the w^onders of the better 
country. 

f[\are\) 28. 

A WINTER WALK. 

(torrington road.) 

A winding walk soft paved with snow, 
On either hand against the skies, 

Streaked with the ruddy snnset-glow, 
White mantled trees arise. 

Xo sound : the very wind is still, 
Tired by long waiting into sleep ; 

No hurrying brook or wild birds trill 
Disturbs the silenee deep. 

The wintry forest scene appears 

The tranquil vestibule of peace ; 
From wistful hopes and haunting fears 

We win a sweet release. 



MARCH. 55 

And so we walk the winding way, 
Dismissing thought, content to feel 

What eloquence can never say, 
Or clearest thought reveal. 

And through this quiet gate we peer 

Into the hidden land ; ah well ! 
What wonders we may see and hear, 

When we with silence dwell ! 

— E. T. McLaughlin: Ejiqiiirer. 

fHarel? 29. 

Prof. E. T. McLaughlin, from whom we have 
just quoted, grew from boyhood to manhood in 
Litchfield, graduated at Yale in 1883, and con- 
tinued there as fellow, instructor, and professor 
until his untimely death ten years later. Two 
years is a long time in the thronging life of a 
great university. Yet when the class of 1895 
came to graduate, the class poem was an /// 
Memoriaui of Prof. McLaughlin, while the most 
striking paragraph in the class oration was de- 
voted to the brilliant teacher of English litera- 
ture. These are its closing words : " I cannot 
express all I feel of emotion and tenderness for 
the life that is no longer lived among us. 
Many of you knew him better than I, but the 
refining influence of that noble spirit is the 
best thing I carry away from Yale." 

(T)arel7 30. 

1788.— Amos M, Collins, born. He was an 
eminent m.erchant and philanthropist, mayor 
of Hartford, 1843-46. 



1^6 LirCHFlKl.l) 15()()K OF DAYS. 

/T)arel? 31. 

Let not your heart be troubled. Give thanks 
i^reatly for the good ; and at whatsoever times 
you are afraid, trust in the Lord. — LyxMan 
B EEC HER : Letter to Catharine Beecher. 



Ppril I. 

1724. —John Marsh chosen agent of the 
town, "to represent their state to the General 
Assembly concerning the settlement and con- 
tinuing of their inhabitants in times of war and 
danger." 

Ppril 2. 

Some time in April, 1785, the South Farms 
vSociety voted that "the meeting-house com- 
mittee shall have good right to furnish Runi^ 
Grindstones and Ropes sufficient for framing the 
meeting house according to their best discre- 
tion," 

/^Pril 3- 

William Norton came to church on runners 
for twenty consecutive Sundays during the 
winter of 1872-73. — Leonard Stone s Diary. 

This is a good record for the snow, and for 
Mr. Norton, too. 

Ppril 4. 

State elections used to be held on the first 
Monday in April. 

"When a fall of snow became moist tinder an 
election-day sun, so as to pack easily into balls, 
3* ' (57) 



58 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

the heart of every true Litchfield lad thumped 
with delight. Then half a dozen of the most 
agile of us would 'shin' up the lig-htning-rod 
to the belfry, forty or fifty feet above, and, 
secure in our perch, pelt mercilessly the help- 
less and somewhat profane crowd of sovereign 
voters." — Clarence Deming : A Yankee Town 
Meeting. 

ppril 5. 

The snows passed away like a bad dream, 
and the brooks woke up and began to laugh 
and to gurgle, and the ice went out of the 
ponds. ... In a few weeks the woods, late 
so frozen — hopelessly buried in snow-drifts — 
were full of a thousand delicacies of life and 
motion, and flowers bloomed on every hand. 
" Thou sendest forth thy spirit and they are 
created ; and thou renewest the face of the 
earth." — Harriet Beecher Stowe : Poganiic 
People. 

Ppril 6. 

1 785. — John Pierpont, born. He became one 
of the most eminent of Unitarian preachers, a 
powerful advocate of the anti-slavery and tem- 
perance reforms, and one of the leading men 
of letters of his time. 

/Ipril 7- 

181 7. — Our election has been held this day. 
In this village, Gov. vSmith had 222, and your 



Go LITCHFIELD r.(K)R f)F DAYS. 

business life, and was founder and first presi- 
dent of the Bank of North America. 

1 820.— Henry W. Buel, born. He founded 
vSpring- Hill Sanitarium in 1858, and became 
one of the leading physicians of the State. 

"He was so much of an educated Christian 
o-entleman that it was comparatively easy for 
him to do that which would give a man peace 
at the last."— Dr. G. W. Russell: Hartford 
Coiirant. 

" There will be a great many people who will 
be glad to see Dr. Buel's picture in the Book of 
Days," said some one while this book was going 
through the press. 

At his first surgical operation, Dr. Buel 
offered a prayer, and in that spirit he fulfilled 
his ministry of healing, helping men to realize 
that the Great Physician is not far off. 

flpril 8. 

1794. — Edmund Kirby, born. He served 
through the War of 181 2 and the Mexican War, 
attaining the rank of colonel. 

Ppril 9. 

In 1 81 7, the year Oliver Wolcott, Jr., was 
elected governor, he enlarged the house on 
vSouth street, built by Gen. Wadsworth in 1799, 
and is said to have lived there in a style never 
before attempted in Connecticut. The present 
owner of this historic house is Cob George 
Bliss Sanford. 



^,^% ^ 
'*^ 




HENRY W, BUEL, M. D. 



APRIL. 6l 

/^pril 10. 

1776. — Oliver Wolcott writes his wife : 
"Your Cares and Burdens must be many and 
great ; but put your trust in that God who has 
hitherto supported you and me ; He will not 
fail to take Care of those who put their Trust in 
Him." 

PprJI II. 

The first Oliver Wolcott set out thirteen 
button-ball trees in the village, naming them 
after the original States. These trees were not 
set out in a row, but were planted here and 
there on the main streets. Two of these trees 
are still standing ; one, on East Street near the 
Ebenezer Marsh House ; the other, in front of 
the Roman Catholic Church. The latter tree, 
it is said, was named Connecticut. 

flpril 12. 

After Dr. Pierpont had become one of the 
most distinguished Unitarian clergymen in the 
country, he revisited Litchfield. At once a dis- 
cussion arose in the Congregational church as 
to whether he should be asked to preach. 
Finally, a compromise was reached. He was 
invited to make the long prayer. And he did 
it. He might just as well have preached the 
sermon, for he prayed for nearly a week ! — J. 
Deming Perkins. 



62 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

ppril 13. 

TjSg.— Ephraim Kirby's law-reports, the first 
to be published in the United States, are adver- 
tised by the Monitor as " just published at this 
office, and ready for subscribers and gentlemen 
disposed to purchase, for which most kinds of 
country produce will be received." 

Ppril 14. 

1778. — Times, I admit, are bad, but I do not 
believe that God will consign this country to 
Destruction. Light in due time will arise, and 
the Happy Days of Peace, fair, equitable, and 
just Peace will return. — Oliver Wolcott. 

1802. — Horace Bushnell was born " in an old 
house, now gone, at the fork of the roads, and 
opposite the Episcopal church in Bantam." 
When three years of age, he removed with his 
parents to New Preston. 

Bushnell was pre-eminently the preacher's 
preacher, — the most original and stimulating- 
thinker in the realm of theology that America 
in this century has produced. 

ppril 15. 

I was only a tender, rubicund mollusk of a 
creature at the time when I came out in this 
rough battle with winds, winters, and wicked- 
ness ; and so far from being able to take care 
of myself, I was only a little and confusedly 



APRIL. 63 

conscious of myself, or that I was anybody; 
and when I broke into this little, confused con- 
sciousness, it was with a cry — such a dismal 
figure did I make to myself ; or perchance it 
was something- prophetic, without inspiration, 
a foreshadow, dim and terrible, of the great 
battle of woe and sin I was sent hither to fight. 
But my God and my good mother both heard 
my cry and went to the task of strengthening 
and comforting me together, and were able ere 
long to get a smile on my face. My mother's 
loving instinct was from God, and God was in 
love to me first, therefore ; which love was 
deeper than hers and more protracted. Long 
vears ago she vanished, but God stays by me 
still, embracing me in my gray hairs as ten- 
derly and carefully as she did in my infancy, 
and giving to me as my joy and the principal 
glory of my life that he lets me know him, and 
helps me with real confidence to call him my 
Father. — Horace Bushnell : Life and Letters. 

Ppril 16. 

Horace Bushnell was born in a household 
where religion was no occasional and nominal 
thing, no irksome restraint nor unwelcome vis- 
itor, but a constant atmosphere, a commanding 
but genial presence. In our father it was char- 
acterized by eminent evenness, fairness, and 
conscientiousness ; in our mother, it was felt as 
an intense life of love, utterly unselfish and un- 



64 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS. 

tirinii" in its devotion, yet thoug-htful, sagacious, 
and wise, always stimulating and ennobling, 
and in special crises leaping out in tender and 
almost awful fire. If ever there was a child of 
Christian nurture, he was one. — George Bush- 
NELL : Jhts/i/h'/rs Life and Letters. 

/Ipril 17. 

F. Ratchford Starr, after a successful busi- 
ness career in Philadelphia, came to Litchfield 
some thirty years ago, bought property on 
Chestnut Hill, and began farming for recrea- 
tion. He soon added to his land, and estab- 
lished the Echo Farm Dairy. No one has done 
justice to the sights of Litchfield who has failed 
to visit this model dairy. 

/^pril 18. 

The reader may want to know how I suc- 
ceeded in my first and only attempt at plowing. 
Everything being ready, and not a few look- 
ers-on to witness results, I started on a course 
due south, at least it should have been, but 
certainly was not. Though " due " there, I 
never reached that point. It was an ordinary 
plow I had, yet it acted in the most extraordi- 
nary way, going southeast and then southwest. 
Indeed, the oxen proved so stupid that they 
could not be made to '' head " as I ordered 
them. ... At times they were bound N. 



APRIL. 65 

N. W., then N. N. E., though " due " south, and 
I beg-an to suspect that I was driving a more 
intelligent team than I had at first supposed, 
and that the knowing creatures, aware of my 
fondness for sailing, were "boxing the com- 
pass" for my gratification. — F. Ratchford 
vStarr : Fanu Echoes. 

Ppril 19. 

I remember standing often in the door of our 
house and looking over a distant horizon, where 
Mount Tom reared its proud blue head against 
the sky, and the Great and Little Ponds, as they 
were called, gleamed out amid a steel-blue sea 
of distant pine groves. — Harriet Beecher 
Stowe. 

Ppril 20. 

To the west of us rose a smooth-bosomed 
hill, called Prospect Hill ; and many a pensive, 
wondering hour have I sat at our playroom 
window, watching the glory of the wonderful 
sunsets that used to burn themselves out amid 
voluminous wreathings, or castellated turrets 
of clouds — vaporous pageantry proper to a 
mountainous region. — Harriet Beecher 
Stowe. 

/^pril 21. 

" On the east of us lay another upland, called 
Chestnut Hills, whose sides were wooded with 
a rich growth of forest trees, whose changes of 



66 LTTCHFTET.D P.OOK OF DAYS. 

tint and verdure, from the first misty tints of 
spring- green, through the deepening hues of 
summer, into the rainbow glories of autumn, 
was a subject of constant remark and of pen- 
sive contemplation to us children/' — Harrikt 
Beecher Stowe. 

Ppril 22. 

In April, 1723, the inhabitants voted to build 
th^ir first church ; and the house was finished 
within three years. It was built in a plain 
manner and without a steeple. Its dimensions 
were 45 feet in length and 35 in breadth. . . . 
At the raising of this building, all the adult 
males in the whole township being present, 
sate on the sills at once. — Morris Statistical 
Account. 

/^pril 23. 

1749. — The first St. Michael's church was 
raised. It stood about a mile west of the Court 
House. It was named at the request of John 
Davies, who had been for some years the only 
Episcopalian in the town. 

Ppril 24. 

1875. — The Village Improvement Company 
is organized at the home of George M. Wood- 
ruff. The following were the first officers : 
Geoige M. Woodruff, President ; Mary C. 
Hickox, Secretary ; Grace N. Gates, Treasurer. 

Up to the time of its celebration in the 



APRTL. 67 

summer of 1895, this society raised and ex- 
pended for the benefit of the village, $15,253.70. 
The concrete walks, the street lamps, the 
stone watering trough in the center of the 
village, are some of the evidences of its work ; 
while through its public spirited initiative, 
householders have been stimulated to give 
added care to their own private grounds. This 
society has been the determining factor in 
making this venerable town one of the most 
beautiful of summer resorts in all New 
England. 

ppril 25. 

Tapping Reeve " was quite absent-minded. 
One day he was seen walking up North street 
with a bridle in his hand, but without his horse, 
which had quietly slipped out and walked off. 
The Judge calmly fastened the bridle to a post, 
and walked into the house oblivious of any 
horse." — E. D. Mansfield: Personal Memories. 

flpril 26. 

A number of stories concerning Judge 
Reeve's absent-mindedness have come down 
to these later days. It is part of local tradition 
that one day he borrowed a gun of his neigh- 
bor, Major Seymour. Weeks after it was found 
where he had left it, leaning against a bean- 
pole, but meanwhile entangled by the rapidly- 
growing stalk. 



68 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

On another occasion, a passenger on the mid- 
night stage from New Haven made an urgent 
call at the Judge's for a legal document in his 
possession. All night long the search was kept 
up, but in vain. vSome time after the paper 
was found — stuffed in the bung of the vinegar 
barrel. 

Ppril 27. 

1777. — News of the Danbury Raid reaches 
town. 

" About one o'clock we were alarmed. Our 
people turned out spiritedly ; came up with the 
rear of the enemy at eleven the next day, a lit- 
tle below Wilton meeting-house, and pursued 
them aboard their ships." — Dr. Reuben Smith 
Letter to Oliver Woleott. 

/^pril 28. 

1 74 1. — Col. Beebe, born. He was distin- 
tinguished in the French and Revolutionary 
conflicts, and held many civil offices in his 
native town. 

1777. Paul Peck was slain in the Wilton 
skirmish. He was the most famous hunter of 
his day. Father Mills of Torringford, in preach- 
ing on the folly of self-conceit, told of a Berk- 
shire fox who had eluded so many snares and 
hunters and hounds as to become careless. 
" He enters Fat Swamp at a jolly trot, head 
and tail up, looking defiance at the enemies he 



APRIL. 69 

has left so far behind him. But, oh ! the dread- 
ful reverse ; in the midst of his haughty rev- 
erie, he is brought to a sudden and everlasting 
stop in one of Paul Peck's traps." 

Fat Swamp is the fertile valley just south of 
the Ripley place. 

Ppril 29. 

1 7 19. — Fifty-seven deeds were made out to 
the original proprietors of the township. 

f\pr\\ 30. 

When I first came here, I was presented by a 
friend with numerous valuable cuttings, and 
felt in duty bound to give them my personal 
attention. They were all planted with the 
utmost care, perhaps too much of it, for not one 
of them took root, so far as could be seen. It 
did not occur to me to ask the members of the 
Chinese Embassy, when they honored me with 
a visit a year or two ago, whether they had 
heard of, or seen, before leaving China, any of 
these cuttings or the results of them. I had 
planted them years previously upside down, 
and if the}^ appeared anywhere, it must have 
been at the antipodes. — F. Ratchford Starr : 
Farm Echoes. 



may 1. 

1 789. — A meeting of leading citizens is held at 
the house of David Buel. They " associate and 
mutually agree, that hereafter we will carry on 
our business without the use of distilled Spirits 
as an article of refreshment, either for our- 
selves or those whom we employ, and that 
instead thereof, we will serve our workmen 
with wholesome food, and common simple 
drinks of our own production." — Litchfield 
Monitor, May 25, i^Sg. 

While this is not the " first Temperance 
Organization in the world," nevertheless, the 
signing of this agreement is one of the most 
noted landmarks in the history of the Temper- 
ance Reform in America, — antedating Lyman 
Beecher's " Six Sermons " by more than thirty 
years. 

1898. — G. P. Colvocoresses, Lieutenant Com- 
mander of the Concord, takes part in the battle 
of Manila Bay. In a letter of his published in 
the Enquirer, he says : " We were under the fire 
of more than a hundred guns for over four 
hours, and I cannot imagine ships being han- 
dled with more skill, or men behaving with 
greater coolness and courage, than did ours." 

(70) 



MAY. 71 

Eight Litchfield men were in the service of 
the country during the Spanish war, — three of 
them were under fire at the front. 

may 2. 

A few days after the meeting at David Buel's, 
just alluded to, Jedidiah Strong signed the 
Temperance Resolutions with a commendatory 
note. 

As one reads his name in this connection, 
even at this late date, it is with a feeling of 
sadness. vStrong was a man of considerable 
ability, and a successful politician in his day ; 
even in the times of the AVolcotts and chief 
Justice Adams, and Tapping Reeve, he sat in 
thirty sessions of the legislature, was a mem- 
ber of the Continental Congress, and held other 
positions of trust. But domestic troubles came, 
resulting in a divorce ; then strong drink 
helped him on the downward road. He died 
in poverty, and no man knows the place of his 
burial. The only memorial that is left of him 
is the milestone at Elm Ridge : 
^S Miles to 
Hartford 
102 Miles to 
New York 

J. Strong 
AD 1787. 



72 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

may 3. 

What a preponderance of motives in favor of 
doing right ! How small the inducement to do 
wrong ! The first is to the second as a million 
to one. — Lyman Beecher. 

may 4. 

1791. — Robert Pierpont, born. He became 
lieutenant-governor of Vermont and judge of 
the S upreme Court of the vState. 

may 5. 

1812. — Luke Lewis moved into his house on 
East street. There had been a heavy snow the 
night before, and the moving was done with 
ox-sleds. — Old LitcJificld Houses. 

may 6. 

Litchfield being a frontier town when it was 
first settled, the inhabitants were often alarmed. 
In May, 1722, Captain Jacob Griswould \^sic\ 
being at work alone in a field about one mile 
west of the present court-house, two Indians 
suddenly rushed upon him from the woods, 
took him, pinioned his arms, and carried him 
off. They traveled in a northerly direction, 
and the same day arrived in some part of the 
township, now called Canaan, then a wilder- 
ness. The Indians kindled a fire, and after 



MAY. 73 

binding their prisoner hand and foot, lay down 
to sleep. Griswould, fortunately, disengaging 
his hands and his feet, while his arms were yet 
pinioned, seized their guns, and made his 
escape into the woods. After traveling a small 
distance he sat down and waited till the dawn 
of day. . . . The savages awoke in the 
morning, and finding their prisoner gone, im- 
mediately pursued him ; they soon overtook 
him, and kept in sight of him the greater part 
of the day. . . . Near sunset, he reached 
an eminence, in an open field about one mile 
northwest of the present court-house. He then 
discharged one of his guns, which immediately 
summoned the people to his assistance. The 
Indians fled and Griswould safely returned to 
his family. — Morris Statistical Account. 

may 7- 

A Mrs. Sanford in South Farms cleared her 
dooryard by cutting with her own hands one 
tree a day, while her husband was engaged in 
more pressing farm work. It was she who, 
before even a bridle path had been opened 
through the woods, used to walk to Litchfield 
meeting-house on vSundays carrying her shoes in 
her hands to be worn only in the village. When 
we consider such exertions, need we wonder 
that many years later, when the younger Wol- 
cotts and others set the elms in our village 



74 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

streets, the old men groaned : " We have worked 
so hard and just got the woods cleared off, and 
now they are bringing the trees back again ! " 
• — Esther H. Thompson : Enquirer. 



fnay 8. 

In the early days, the hostess of the village 
tavern was asked by an Indian for supper and 
a drink. As he had no money, she refused 
him, calling him a worthless and good-for- 
nothing fellow. A white man overhearing the 
conversation, took pity on the Indian, ordered 
supper for him and paid the bill. When the 
meal was ended, the Indian said he would like 
to tell a story to the hostess and to his bene- 
factor : 

" The Bible say, God made the world, and 
then he took him and looked on him, and say, 
' it's all very good.' Then he made dry land 
and water, and sun and moon, and grass and 
trees ; and took him and looked on him, and 
say, ' It's all very good.' Then he made beasts, 
and birds, and fishes ; and took him and looked 
on him and say, ' It's all very good.' Then he 
made man ; and took him and looked on him, 
and say, 'It's all very good.' Then he made 
woman ; and took him and looked on him, and 
he dare no say one such word." The Indian 
having told his story withdrew. — Condensed 
from Dii'ig/ifs Travels. 



MAY. 75 

niay 9. 

The sequel to the story of the preceding- 
paragraph relates to the captivity of the white 
man. Years after, while in the wilderness, he 
was carried captive by the Indians to Canada. 
After spending- some months there, an un- 
known Indian met him and ordered the white 
man to follow him. They traveled together 
for many days. At length, "they came one 
morning- to the top of an eminence presenting- 
the prospect of a cultivated country, in which 
was a mimber of houses. The Indian asked 
his companion whether he knew the place. He 
replied eagerly that it was Litchfield. His 
guide then, after reminding him that he had 
so many years before relieved the wants of a 
famishing Indian at an inn in that town, sub- 
joined : '' I, that Indian ; now I pay you ; go 
home." Having said this, he bade him adieu; 
and the man joyfully returned to his own 
house. — Condensed from DwigJifs Travels. 

(T)ay 10. 

1725. — The town "voted and agreed that 
there shall forthwith be erected one good and 
substantial Mount, or place convenient for 
sentinels to stand for the better discovering 
the enemy, and for the safety of said sentinels 
when upon their watch or ward ; that is to say, 
one Moimt at each of the four Forts." 



76 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

n)ay II. 

My grandmother, Ann Cat! in, when a little 
girl, was playing in the yard, and thinking she 
saw a band of Indians coming up the hill, ran 
in terror to her mother saying, "The Indians 
are coming, and we shall all be killed." The 
dreaded Indians proved to be a cavalcade of 
relatives, old and young, in every imaginable 
sort of conveyance, coming to do honor to the 
birthday of Mrs. Catlin. Her housewifely 
anxiety was relieved as to the entertainment 
of so many guests, by the thought that her 
capacious brick oven was at that moment filled 
to overflowing with good things, and that the 
honey from a hive of bees had that very morn- 
ing been secured, and that a cart, seemingly 
supplied with creature comforts, was approach- 
ing. — Mrs. Mary A. Hunt: Enquirer. 

/T\ay 12. 

1777. — Gov. Franklin is confined in our gaol, 
and a constant guard kept. We trust he will 
find it difficult to escape, should he attempt it. 
— Dr. Reuben vSmith : Letter to Gen. Woleott. 

Hon. Wm. Franklin was the son of Benja- 
min Franklin, and was the Tory governor of 
New Jersey. 

may 13. 

1793. — vSamuel vS. Phelps, born. He was the 
son of Captain John Phelps, proprietor of the 



MAY. 



77 



United States Hotel in the old days. He 
became judge of the vSiipreme Court, and United 
States vSenator from Vermont. His son is E. 
J. Phelps, one of the best known of the public 
men of to-day. 

(Hay 14. 

Vermont is a child of this County, We gave 
her her first Governor, and three Governors 
besides ; as many as three vSenators in Con- 
gress, and also many of her most efficient 
founders and early distinguished citizens. — 
Judge Church: Litchfield County Centennial, 

(Hay 15. 

The attitude assumed by Vermont in the 
early stages of the Revolutionary War, in 
respect to Canada on the north, and the 
threatening States of New York and New 
Hampshire on either side, was peculiar and 
delicate, and demanded the most adroit policy 
to secure her purpose of independence. In 
her dilemma, her most sagacious men resorted 
to the counsels of their old friends of Litchfield 
County, and it is said that her final course was 
shaped, and her designs accomplished by the 
advice of a confidential council, assembled at 
the house of Gov. Wolcott in this village. — 
Judge Church : Litchfield County Centennial. 



j8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

(Hay i6. 

1740. — "Voted, that whosoever shall Kill and 
Distroy any Rattle vSnakes, within the bounds 
of the town, any time before the tenth day of 
December next, bringing the tayl and som of 
the flesh to any one of the Selectmen of the 
town, shall have three pence for each snake." 

/T)ay 17. 

There, on the topmost twig that rises and 
falls with willowy motion, sits that ridiculous 
but sweet singing bobolink, singing, as a 
Roman candle fizzes, showers of sparkling 
notes. — Henry Ward Beecher : £j'es aiid Ears. 

(T)ay 18. 

Every thoughtful, right-minded farmer has 
an inspiration not found in any other calling. 
He works God's earth, preparing it for the de- 
sired crops, and when all is ready he plants the 
seed. There his work ceases. He can do no 
more, for God alone can "give the increase." 
In due time myriads of blades of grass or grain 
inake their appearance as so many messengers 
sent by the Almighty to tell him of the coming- 
harvest. He reverently feels that God and he 
have worked together, and goes forth with 
grateful heart to receive the ripened grain 
direct from the hand of the Creator. — F. Ratch- 
FORD Starr: Farm Echoes. 



MAY. 79 

(Hay 19. 

1780. — The Dark Day throu(>-hout New Ene- 
land. The darkness came on about ten o'clock ; 
candles were lit in the houses; lanterns, carried 
on the roads. To multitudes, it seemed as if 
the end of the world were at hand. 

1781. — AVashington breakfasted in Litchfield, 
cii route to Wethersfield. 

/T)ay 20. 

When General Washington passed throug-h 
Litchfield in the Revolutionary War, the sol- 
diers, to evince their attachment to him, threw a 
shower of stones at the windows of the Epis- 
copal Church. He reproved them, saying- : " I 
am a ChurcJuiiaji, and wish not to see the church 
dishonored and desolated in this manner." — 
Anna Dickinson : Narrative of the Episeopal 
Church. 

(T)ay 21. 

1864. — The vSecond Connecticut found itself 
for the first time face to face with the enemy. 
Yes, that dingy looking line, slowly moving to 
the north along that slope, a mile and a half in 
front of us, was a body of real, live Johnuies ; 
and those puffs of smoke in the woods below 
were from the muskets of rebels, who were 
firing on our pickets. . . . Late in the 
evening we silently moved out, following the 



8o LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS, 

track of the troops who had preceded us, and 
began that long and terrible series of marches 
which were continued almost without a breath- 
ing spell, until the first of June. — T. F. Vaill : 
History of the Second Cotniecticiit. 

fT)ay 22. 

1898. — Auxiliary No. 16 of the American 
National Red Cross Society was organized in 
the Town Hall. Up to September 23d, $820 
and a large amount of material were contrib- 
uted. Twenty-three sewing meetings were 
held with an average attendance of twenty- 
two. The ladies in Bantam, Milton, and North- 
field co-operated in the work. 

The Red Cross work calls to mind the still 
larger work done during the Civil War, and 
leads one to think of that memorable Sunday 
in the Eighteenth Century when a messenger 
came breathless into the meeting-house, and 
Parson Champion read to the people " vSt. John's 
is taken ! " But there is news that the soldiers 
are in great destitution. There is immediate 
need of clothing. That afternoon, not a woman 
was at service. " On that usually still Puritan 
Sabbath afternoon, there now rang out on every 
side the hum of the wheel and the click of the 
shuttle. . . . Many years after, when a ven- 
erable old man, Mr. Champion was asked by 
his granddaughter how he could approve such 



MAY. 



a desecration of the Sabbath. He turned on 
her a solemn look and replied simply, " Mercy 
before sacrifice." 

n\ay 23. 

At a local sword presentation during the Civil 
War, I heard one of the orators exhort the 
ladies not to forget the soldiers in the hospital 
as well as on the field. " For," added he, 
" there's more what is not slewed on the field 
of battle than what is killed by ball." — Clar- 
ence Deming : Yankees and Yankeeisins 

(Hay 24. 

Hezekiah Murray, seventy or eighty 3^ears 
ago, became a total-abstinence man, and refused 
in any way to abet the use or traffic in intoxi- 
cants. He had had a still costing a hundred 
dollars put upon his premises, but he deter- 
mined it should never be used for distilling. 
He plead with Dr. Beecher, who said of him, 
" He would not give me peace ; he stood up in 
the middle of my floor, and counted the names 
of my people who had died drunkards, and of 
those who were going to ruin. . . . Do you 
believe after that I made flip with a crowbar? " 

Murray's earnestness was an important fac- 
tor leading to the " Six Sermons on Intemper- 
ance." 

Years after, when Murray had passed away, 
a strip of copper from the still was sent to Dr. 
Beecher. '' Do you remember Hezekiah Mur- 



82 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

ray?" said the writer. "Yes," replied he, 
springing to his feet, " he was one of God's no- 
blemen." — Condensed from an article in Boston 
Recorder^ Feb. j, i86j. 

n\ay 25. 

One of the first converts under Lyman Beech- 
er's Litchfield ministry fell into intemperate 
habits. This led the doctor to prepare his famous 
Six Sermons on Intemperance. " I wrote under 
such power of feeling as never before or since. 
Never could have written it under other cir- 
cumstances. They took hold of the whole con- 
gregation. vSabbath after Sabbath the interest 
grew and became the most absorbing thing 
ever heard of before. A wonder — of weekly 
conversation and interest, and, when I got 
through, of eulogy; all the old farmers that 
brought in wood to sell, and used to set up 
their cart- whips at the groggery, talked about 
it, and said, man}" of them, they would never 
drink again." — Lv.man Beecher. 

I didn't set up for a reformer any more than 
this : when I saw a rattlesnake in my path, I 
would smite it. — Lyman Beecher. 

(Hay 26. 

Here is a characteristic advertisement taken 
from the Monitor of one hundred years ago : 
" Whereas Anner my wife hath eloped from 



MAY. 83 

my bed and board. All perfons are forbid 
trufting her on my account as I will pay no 
debts of her contracting after this date. All 
thofe indebted to me are forbid making any 
payments to her." 

fnay 27. 

William Norton, who has handed down to the 
present generation many incidents of the 
former times, is responsible for the following 
anecdote : 

When the great elm at the jail corner was a 
slender tree, it was used as a whipping-post. 
The culprit was tied to the tree, and could put 
his arins clear around it. When one of the 
vSeymours was sheriff, he was obliged to inflict 
the old-time penalty upon two men, the one an 
Indian, the other a white man. The Indian 
bore it stoically without a murmur ; but the 
white man, at the first lash, screamed. The 
sheriff had not the heart to make the next blow 
so heavy ; still the culprit continued his outcry. 
Each succeeding blow was lighter, and the 
offender got off with scarcely any injur}^, — save 
perhaps to his vocal chords. 

/T)ay 28. 

The County Jail is now known as " Benton's 
Inn," from the genial Civil War veteran who is 
the jailor. We are sure that if Mayor Mat- 
thews were his guest, he would give as good an 



84 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

account of him as he did of Major Seymour a 
hundred years ago. 

When Rev. James Taylor was pastor of the 
Methodist Church in 1874, he instituted regu- 
lar religious services at the jail. His success- 
ors maintained his work until 1877, when Rev. 
D. D. T. McLaughlin became chaplain. vSince 
he passed away in 1895, his wife has continued 
his work. The Enquirer justly said of him : 
" The good that he has done and the lives that 
he has redeemed, since he has been chaplain at 
the jail the past eighteen years, can never be 
known until the books are opened at the Judg- 
ment Day." 

(T\ay 29. 

Of course you will often walk under the great 
elms on the North street. Tell me whether 
they really touch the skies as it used to seem to 
me, and if they yet hold mysterious conversa- 
tion when the wind moves in their tops ; and 
find out what they say, if you can, for I never 
could. — Henry Ward Beecher : Letter to Fanny 
Fern. 

may 30. 

1778. — Richard vSkinner, born. He became 
chief justice and governor of Vermont. 

1780. — Henry vSeymour, born. He became a 
distinguished citizen of Central New York. 
Gov. Horatio Seymour was his son. 

1789. — James Collier, born. He was the first 



MAY. 85 

civil officer of the Federal government in San 
Francisco. 

may 31. 

1778. — Horatio Seymour, born. He was for 
twelve years United States Senator from Ver- 
mont. It was his nephew and namesake who 
was the Democratic Presidential candidate in 
1868. 



Jai^e 1. 

1776. — Oliver Wolcott writes from Philadel- 
phia to his wife : " It is now a long time since 
I have been here, and I do most sincerel)^ wish 
to return to the Pleasures of a domestick rural 
Life. . . . Here I see little except human 
Faces which I know not, and numerous Piles of 
Buildings which have long since satiated the 
Sight, and the street rumble is far from being- 
musical. But as I was not sent here to please 
myself, I shall cheerfully yield to my Duty." 

1864.— Battle of Cold Harbor. The Litch- 
field county regiment lost 81 men killed; 212 
wounded {^^ fatally) ; 15 missing. 

" About three o'clock the order was re- 
ceived for the Second Connecticut to advance. 
The first battalion went at double-quick across 
the open field under a whizzing of lead that 
dropped somebody at every step, into the wood 
under fire every moment thickening, and in a 
moment with unbroken ranks confronting the 
enemy in their entrenchments, and but for a 
strong abattis of pine boughs would have gone 
over them like Niagara. But there the fight 
began, and there our men fought like lions, 
and there fell and died without the slightest 

(St) 



JUNE. 87 

sense of pain, many, oh how many, of the 
noblest men that ever saw the light. . . . 
They took the entrenchments, they made more 
than five hundred rebel prisoners and sent 
them to the rear, and held the line. — Adjutant 
Vaill : Newspaper Correspondence. 

1892. — The Fire Department Building is 
formally opened. This handsome and lavishly 
equipped club house, — for such it is, — is the 
g-ift of a public-spirited citizen, Mr. J. Deming 
Perkins. 

There was a time when the facilities for 
fighting fire were insufficient, though to be 
sure, it rained sometimes. But, with the intro- 
duction of city water and the building of the 
Fire Department House, the efficient volunteer 
firemen were not only adequately, but ele- 
gantly, equipped for service. 

Jdpe 2. 

You can have no idea of the intense anxiety 
in Litchfield in the days following Cold Har- 
bor. It was the same after every great battle 
in which Litchfield troops were engaged. The 
telegraph wires had more news than they could 
carry. It was impossible to get details. All 
we knew was, that a terrible battle had been 
fought, and that a great number were either 
dead or wounded. As Mr. Hubbard was Con- 
gressman, our house was a rendezvous for peo- 
ple hoping and fearing for news. They would 



65 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

often stay till late at night. I particularly 
remember one woman from Goshen who waited 
till eleven o'clock, and then went home, cheered 
with the thought that no news was good news. 
She had just gone, when we received word that 
her husband was among the slain. — Mrs. Abby 
J. Hubbard. 

JiJ"?? 3- 

You can stand over in the neighborhood of 
the West District schoolhouse, and see the 
smoke from six farm houses, where their dead 
were brought back from the Civil War. Three 
sons of the AVadhams family were slain within 
three weeks. When Deacon Adams went over 
to break the news of the death of one of them, 
he was on his way back to the village, when 
he was told that another had fallen. — Mrs. 
Abby J. Hubbard. 

Such funerals as we had in those days ! I 
shall never forget them. I had the stage line 
then, and (will you believe it ?) w^hen the war 
was over, I brought up from the Naugatuck 
station all that were left from a company that 
went from this town. I carried them all up in 
one stage drawn by four horses. — George 
Kenney. 

During the summer of 1720, the first settlers 
arrived. Captain Jacob Griswold of Windsor, 
John Peck of Hartford, and Ezekiel Buck of 



JUNE. 89 

AVethersfield, brought their families here, built 
log- houses on their home lots, and moved into 
them. 

J^Q? 5- 

" Mother, I don't want to go to school." 

" You don't wish to grow up a dunce, do you, 
Henry? " 

"Yes, marm." 

"What? Grow up like a poor, ignorant 
child, go out to service, and live without know- 
ing anything? " 

" Yes, marm." 

"Well, suppose you begin now. I'll put an 
apron on you, and you shall stay at home and 
do housework. How would you like that ?" 

" Oh, do, Ma ! " 

Sure enough, we were permitted to stay away 
from school, provided we would " do house- 
work " ; and all summer long our hands set the 
table, w^ashed dishes, swept up crumbs, dusted 
chairs, scoured knives ; our feet ran of errands, 
besides the usual complement of chores in the 
barn. — Henry Ward Beecher : Skir Papers. 

J(iij(? 6. 

Col. Matthew Lyon, who figured in public 
life in the early part of this century, having 
been congressman from Vermont and after- 
wards from Kentucky, is remembered here as 
a friendless Irish lad who was sold, to pay his 
passage, to Hugh Hannah. After an alterca- 



90 LITCHFIELD f:!OOK OF DAYS. 

tion with his master, he ran away from him. 
Years after Hannah attributed Lyon's success 
to the corporeal lessons which he had given 
him. Kilbourne, who tells the story, says that 
the price paid for the boy was a pair of stags 
valued at ^12. 

JiJ9? 7. 

1797 — The Monitor contains the following 
advertisement, prefaced with a rude cut of a 
man going along the highway with a stick and 
bundle slung over his shoulder : 

" Ran away from the fubfcriber, about the 
13th inftant, a mulatto fervant Jep 21 years old, 
about five feet 7 or 8 inches high, unclerftands 
the trade of a Bloomer, will probably feek em- 
ployment in that bufinefs. All Perfons are 
forbid harboring, emplo34ng, or dealing with 
faid Jep upon the penalty of the Law. — David 
Welch ." 

On a sultry morning in June, John Davies, 
Jr., started for church on horseback with his 
wife behind him on a pillion, when a shower 
arose. Near Bradleyville there came a blind- 
ing flash, accompanied by a terrific peal of 
thunder which brought a scream from the lady, 
to which her husband replied, " Keep quiet, 
Molly, we are four miles nearer the burying 
ground than when we left home." — vS. : Enquirer^ 
November, 1895. 




ARTMENT BUILDING. 



JUNE. 91 

}a^q 9. 

In Litchfield, when I saw a thunder-storm 
coming- up, I used to run into the house and 
ask my mother to let me put on my old clothes 
and o'o out into the rain ; for nothing was so 
grand to me as being out in the tempest, and 
seeing the elms swayed and the long drought 
broken by the coming on of the storm. I ex- 
ulted ; and though the birds were all gone, I 
was there to sing. — Henry Ward Beecher : 
Lectures on Preaching. 

JiJi^e 10. 

1773. — Roger Skinner, born. He became 
prominent in public life in the state of New 
York, and was for some years judge of the 
United States District" Court. 

Jd9e II. 

1886. — Fire breaks out at a little past one in 
the morning. The Court House and Mansion 
House are destroyed, and all buildings from 
Dr. Beckwith's residence on vSouth street, to a 
brick building thirty feet west of the Court 
House on West street. " The rapidly burning 
mass of wooden buildings, with the Mansion 
House towering up in the center, and the 
Court House on the right, the air full of flame 
and cinders (one of the latter was found six 
miles away at the foot of the lake), made a 
splendid if terrific picture." — Enquirer. 



92 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. 

jii\)e 12. 

There are only two or three things required 
for a good stone wall. It must be made so 
that chipmonks can run in and out, easily ; it 
must have woodbine enough in spots ; it must 
have a deal of mosses growing on it ; and it 
must be broad enough on the top for one to 
walk on. I know of nothing else which a good 
wall requires. — H. W. Beecher : Eyes and Ea]-s. 

Jdi^e 13. 

1781. — The first meeting of St. Paul's Ma- 
sonic Lodge held, Rev. Ashbel Baldwin pre- 
siding as master. 

Jdi^e 14. 

181 1. — Harriet Beecher, born. Her home 
was here until her father was called to Han- 
over vStreet Church, Boston, in 1826. 

Mrs. Stowe loved Litchfield. Her best book 
for reading in this town is Pogaiutc People, — 
photographic in its accurate delineation of the 
Litchfield she knew, and touched with the skill 
of a great literary artist. In sending a presen- 
tation copy to Oliver Wendell Holmes, she 
wrote : " It is an extremely quiet story for 
these sensational days, when heaven and earth 
seemed to be racked for a thrill ; but as I get 
old, I do love to think of those quiet, simple 
times, when there was not a poor person in the 
parish, and the changing glories of the year 
were the only spectacle." 



JUNE. 93 

Mrs. vStorrs O. Seymour, who was a personal 
friend of Mrs. Stowe in her later years, used 
occasionally to send her flowers from her 
mother's grave or from the garden of Judge 
Reeve's house, where Lyman Beecher doubt- 
less called on June 14, 181 1, to tell his friend 
of the birth of his daughter. 

Mrs. Storrs O. Seymour, while residing in 
Hartford, frequently saw Mrs. Stowe. After a 
visit from her in the winter of 1889, she made 
tlie following memorandum, which now appears 
in print for the first time : 

" I once showed ]\Irs. Stowe a copy of her 
autobiography Avhich had been given me, and 
she was much interested in looking over the 
pictures with me. ']\Iy portrait,' she said (the 
first one in the book), ' was taken by a Mr. 
Richmond ; he used to talk to me and keep me 
laughing ; I suppose so I should have a pleas- 
aiit expression.' Of her father's, she said . 
' That is my dear father ; that looks as he used 
to, when he came into the room where we 
children were all frolicking; he would stop 
and look at us with that pleasant, amused 
expression on his face.' 

"Her sister Catharine's, she said, 'was like 
her, only it looked cross, and she was not 
cross.' Of her brother, Henry Ward's, she 
exclaimed. ' Oh ! there is Henry ! that looks 



94 LITCHFIELD BOOR OF DAYS. 

just as he used when he went into his 
pulpit, as much as to say, 'here I am! per- 
fectly fearless ! I am going to sa}^ just what I 
think right, no matter what anyone says about 

it; 

" Of her mother she spoke very tenderly and 
beautifully, and of her husband also. 

" She told me about each of the houses she 
had lived in, and with very great feeling of the 
old home in Cincinnati. 

" When I opened at the last picture of her- 
self, she said : ' I like that better than any 1 
ever had taken ; they used to make such dread- 
ful pictures of me,' and then went on to tell me 
of a gentleman who, when introduced to her, 
said : ' Why, Mrs. Stowe, is it possible this is 
you ? You are quite a good looking woman ; 
all the portraits I ever saw of you made you 
out dreadfully homely.' " 

Jd9(^ i6. 

■ 1823. — It was about the middle of June that 
my father and I drove up to Grove Catlin's 
tavern on the Green. One of the first objects 
which struck my eyes was interesting and 
picturesque. This was the long procession of 
school girls coming down North street, walk- 
ing under the lofty elms, and moving to the 
music of a flute and flageolet. The girls were 
gaily dressed and evidently enjoying their 
evening parade, in this most balmy season of 



JUNE. 95 

the year. It was the school of Miss Sally 
Pierce. — E. D. Mansfield : Personal Memories. 

JiJ9e 17. 

Miss Sarah Pierce opened a school in this 
town, for the instruction of females, in the 
year 1792, which has justly merited and 
acquired a distinguished reputation. — J/^/vvV 
Statistieal Accoimt. 

This school was doubly famous, both for its 
teachers and for its students. Sally and Mary 
Pierce and John P. Brace were pioneers in 
the field of higher education for women. Be- 
sides the Beecher children, there were many 
other pupils whose names are well known. In 
the long list, we note the names of Mrs. Mar- 
shall 6. Roberts, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field, Mrs. 
McCuUough, wife of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, Mrs. Bliss, and Mrs. Van Lennep, 
the missionaries. 

Jupe 18. 

Boys have nothing to do but to set each 
other on to mischief. They pull off buds 
from the unblossomed rose bushes ; they pick 
cucumbers by the half-bushel that were to 
have been let alone ; they break down rare 
shrubbery to get whips, and instead get whip- 
pings ; they kill the guinea-pigs ; chase the 
chickens ; break up hens' nests ; get into the 
carriages and wagons only to tumble out, and 
set all the nurses a-running ; thev study every 
6* 



g6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

means of getting under the horse's feet, and, 
as of the more dangerous act they are fond of 
tickling their hind legs and pulling at their 
tails ; they fill the already fed horses with 
extra oats, causing the hostler to fear for his 
charge's health, since he refuses oats at the 
next regular feeding.; they paddle in all the 
mud on the premises ; sit down in the street 
and fill their pockets with dirt ; they wet their 
clothes in the brook, tear them in the woods ; 
lose their caps a dozen times a day, and go 
bare-headed in the blazing sun ; they cut up 
every imaginable prank with their long-suffer- 
ing nurses when meals are served, or when 
bedtime comes, or when morning brings the 
washing and dressing. They are little, nimble, 
compact skinfuls of ingenious, fertile, endless, 
untiring mischief. They stub their toes, or cut 
their fingers, or get stung, or eat some poison- 
ous berry, seed, or root, or make us think that 
they have, which is just as bad ; they fall down 
stairs, or eat green fruit till they are as tight 
as a drum, and yet there is no peace to us with- 
out them, as there certainly is none w4th them. 
— Henry Ward Beecher : Sfc7/- Papers. 

Jijpe 19. 

1809. — Lewis B. Woodruff, born. He w^as 
one of the most distinguished jurists Litchfield 
has produced. His long judicial career in the 
city and state courts of New York culminated 



JUNE. 97 

when President Grant appointed him federal 
judge for the Southern District of New York. 
The bar and the press received the news of his 
appointment with marked enthusiasm, and 
when he had finished his life-work, a few years 
later, even so irresponsive a paper as the New 
York Post said, " It would be difficult to find a 
better representative of his class than Lewis 
B. Woodruff, late United States circuit judge." 
1826. — Charles Loring Brace, born. It is a 
singular coincidence that two of New York's 
foremost citizens of recent years should have 
been born on the same day of the month, in a 
quiet New England town. 

Jdpe 20. 

1826. — The LitcJifitid County Post issued its 
first number. During the editorship of Henry 
Adams, a few years later, it received the name 
by which it is now known. The Litchfield En- 
quirer. It is the oldest paper in the county. 

1864. — This was the most intolerable position 
the regiment was ever required to hold [in the 
entrenchments before Petersburg]. We had 
seen a deadlier spot at Cold Harbor, and others 
awaited us in the future ; but they were 
agonies that did not last. Here, however, we 
had to ^-^71', hour after hour, from before dawn 
until after dark, and that, too, where we could 

not move a rod without extreme danger 

Do you like to drink warm water ? Then enlist 



98 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

in the next war and stay twelve hours in a hole 
in the ground, without shelter from the fierce- 
ness of a Virginia sun in June, with bullets 
passing two feet above your head, with dead 
bodies broiling all around you, and with two 
tin canteens of muddy water. — T. F. Vaill : 
History of the Second Connecticut. 

Jd9e 21. 

Charles Loring Brace's curiosity on subjects 
of history was insatiable, until his questions 
and his father's elaborate replies became a 
torment to the young ladies of the school. 
When finall}" the child selected the dinner hour 
to propound his queries, and their teacher laid 
down his carving knife and fork, and the roast 
grew cold, the pupils after suffering thus 
silently and hungry on several occasions, 
rebelled. Charles was threatened. If he did 
not stay away with his questions, he should be 
kissed. Dreading this terror, after the manner 
of small boys, he desisted. — Life and Letters. 

Jd^e 22. 

In Kilbourne's Biographical Notes, Charles 
Loring Brace is mentioned as a literary man 
who has written some pleasing volumes of 
European travel. " He is now secretary of 
the Children's Aid Society in the city of New 
York." It was there that Mr. Brace accom- 
plished his life work. In the annals of Ameri- 



JUNE. 99 

can philanthropy, no name stands higher. He 
was pre-eminent both in practical achievement 
and in a wise understanding of all that per- 
tains to the field of philanthropy. His Gesta 
Christi is a book that has received world-wide 
recognition. 

JdJi^e 23. 

1790. — Freeborn Garrettson, accompanied by 
his colored servant Harry, enters Litchfield. 
They preached the first Methodist sermons 
delivered here. " I found freedom in preach- 
ing from ' Enoch walked with God.' " The 
sermon was delivered in St. Michael's church 
before a large congregation. Garrettson left 
Harry to preach another sermon, and went on 
to the center of the town ; the bell rang, and 
he preached to a few in the Presbyterian meet- 
ing-house, and lodged v/ith a kind churchman. 

During his visit, "I preached," he says, "in 
the skirts of the town, where I was opposed by 

, who made a great disturbance. I told 

him the enemy had sent him to pick up the 
good seed, turned my back on him, and went 
my way accompanied by brothers W. and H. 
I found another waiting company in another 
part of the town, to whom I declared, 'Except 
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' In this 
town we have given the devil and the wicked 
much trouble ; we have a few good friends." — 
Stevens : Memorials of Methodism. 

It is pleasant to remember that the Episco- 



lOO LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

pal and Congregational churches were open 
to the early itinerant. His colaborers did not 
fare so well generally. Jesse Lee, the founder 
of Connecticut Methodism, preached his first 
sermon in Norwalk. After trying in vain to 
secure a private house for service, he asked 
permission to preach in an orchard. The lady 
owning it objected on the plea that the people 
would tramp down the grass. He preached on 
the highway, and the common people heard 
him gladly. 

Jij^e 24. 

1813. — Henry Ward Beecher, born. 

On one occasion Mr. Beecher was introduced 
to an English audience as the son of the dis- 
tinguished Dr. Beecher. To those of us who 
have the Litchfield perspective he is always 
that. We are not unmindful of the later fame 
that came to him and to his sister Harriet, but 
to us they are the children at the parsonage ; 
and as we pass by Prospect street they seem 
even yet to be playing on the lawn. 

Juije 25. 

Oh, there is not a place in the old Litchfield 
house where I was born that is not dear to my 
eyes ! I go back there sometimes ; and the 
last time I went I chose not to go in the glare 
of day, they had so changed the place. But I 
stood at twilight when just enough darkness 
had come down to hide the changes, and yet 




THE HEECHER llOl'SK. Rfcent Photoyrapli. 



JUNE. lOI 

there was light enough to throw up above the 
horizon and against the sky the substance and 
form of the old house. It was full to my 
thought of my father and my mother, of my 
sisters and brothers. My heart blessed the old 
house for all that it had had in it ; for all the 
care it had had ; for all its sweet associations. 
It was stained through with soul color. It was 
full, as it were, with the blood of life. — Henry 
Ward Beecher : Lectures on Preaching. 

Jur^e 26. 

1 81 9. — About this time Henry Ward Beecher 
went a-fishing. He tells of it in Eyes and Ears : 
" A bare-footed boy might have been seen on a 
June afternoon with his alder-pole on his 
shoulder, tripping through the meadow where 
dandelions and wild geraniums were in bloom, 
and steering for the old saw-mill. As soon as 
the meadow was crossed, the fence scaled, and 
a descent begun, all familiar objects were gone, 
and an overpowering consciousness of being 
alone set one's imagination into a dance of fear. 
Could we find our way back ? What if a big 
bull should come out of those bushes ? What 
if a great big man should come along and carry 
us off ? ... . 

"But no sooner did we see the sparkle of 
the water than our soul grew calm and happy 
again. 

" Now, for the first time in our lives, we put 



102 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

on a worm. Wc threw in the hook, and 
trembled all over with exeitement ! 

''The hook and l)ait fell upon the wrinkled 
water, went quietly down the stream, and 
swept in near the shore, where some projecting 
stone roofed over a little pool. Out of that 
pool our little eyes saw something" dart, and our 
little hands, all a-tremble, felt something pud. 
In an instant, with a spasm of energy, we drew 
back the line ; there was a flash in the air, — 
a wriggling flash, — and something smote the 
rock}^, gravelly bank behind. Scrambling up 
we found a shiner ; but alas ! smashed to pieces. 
Soon another and another fared in like man- 
ner, and it was long before we could subdue 
our nerves so as not to dash the fish to pieces. 
Our courage grew every moment. What did 
we care if there was a bull in the bushes ! 
What if a beggar man should come along ! 
What if a great black dog should — but that 
thought was a little too serious. Black dogs 
were terrors not to be lightly thought of, even 
by a six-year-old urchin who had caught fish — 
alone, too ! And so gathering up two roacJi 
and three shiners, we started home. Up the 
sloping hill we ran, till our father's house 
shone out from among the trees ; and then, 
with the dignity and nonchalance of a con- 
queror, we prepared to make a triumphal 
entrance. Since then we have fished in many 
a stream and lake, and in the deep sea, but 



JUNE. 103 

never with half the exhilaration of that first 
joyful hour on the Bantam." 

Jd^e 27. 

1858. Henry N. Hudson became rector of 
St. jNIichael's church. Mr. Hudson is remem- 
bered as a man of fine literary tastes, wl.o had 
made something of a study of Shakespeare. 
He became one of the foremost American 
editors that the great dramatist has had. 

As a preacher, Mr. Hudson had some gro- 
tesque mannerisms. He would hurl out a 
statement, and then would stand watching his 
audience to see its efi"ect, but with a peculiar 
facial contortion that had to be seen to be 
appreciated. 

JLivje 28. 

A child that has not ridden up from the 
meadow to the barn on a load of hay has yet to 
learn one of the luxuries of exultant childhood. 
What care they for jolts, when the whole load 
is a vast and multiplex spring ? The more the 
wagon jounces, the better they like it I Then 
come the bars leading into the lane with maple 
trees on either side. The limbs reach down 
and the green leaves kiss the children over and 
over again ; so would I, if I were a green leaf, 
and not consider m^^self so green after all! — 
Henry Ward Beech er : Fruits^ Flowers, and 
Fanniii!^. 



I04 LITCHFIELD P.OOK OF DAYS. 

JijQe 29. 

I remember hearing' father say with a sor- 
rowful countenanee, as if announcing tlie 
death of some one very interesting to him, 
" My dear, B3^ron is dead, — ^<,'7^//^'. " After being 
a while silent, he said. "Oh, I'm sorry Byron is 
dead. I did hope he would live to do some- 
thing for Christ. What a harp he might have 
swept ! " The whole impression made upon 
me by the conversation was solemn and pain- 
ful. — Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

juY)e 30. 

One very hot da}" in summer, and in the 
afternoon, I was in church, and Dr. Beecher 
was going on in a sensible, but rather prosy, 
half sermon, when all at once he seemed to 
recollect that we had just heard of the death of 
Lord Byron. He was an admirer of Byron's 
poetry, as all who admire genius must be. He 
raised his spectacles and began with an account 
of Byron, his genius, wonderful gifts, and then 
went on to his want of virtue and his want of 
true religion, and finally described a lost soul, 
and the spirit of Byron going off, wandering in 
the blackness of darkness forever ! It struck 
me as wuth an electric shock, and left an im- 
perishable memory. — E. D. Mansfield: P^v- 
S(?//(i/ MeiJiorics. 



Jijiy 1. 

With the Fourth of July so near at hand, our 
th oughts naturally go out to Judah Champion 
and to Oliver Wolcott. Like Isaiah and Heze- 
kiah, our own prophet and statesman stood 
side by side in a time of stress and storm. 
While the parson's well-known prayer sounds 
a little too much like the imprecatory psalms 
to suit this Christian dispensation, we may be 
certain that the Lord knew that it came out of 
the heart of as true a patriot as America had. 
The prayer was delivered in the meeting- 
house which stood where the soldier's monu- 
ment now stands. In the audience were Col. 
Tallmadge and his cavalry regiment, for they 
were spending a Sabbath in the village while 
on their way to the front. But enough,— here 
is the prayer : 

'' O Lord, we view with terror the approach 
'of the enemies of thy holy religion. Wilt thou 
send storm and tempest to toss them upon the 
sea and to overwhelm them upon the mighty 
deep, or to scatter them to the uttermost parts 
of the earth. But, peradventure, should any 
escape thy vengeance, collect them together 
again, O Lord, as in the hollow of thy hand, 

(105) 



Io6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

and let thy lio-htnings play upon them ! We 
beseech thee, moreover, that thou do gird up 
the loins of these thy servants who are going 
forth to fight thy battles. Make them strong 
men, ' that one shall chase a thousand, and two 
shall put ten thousand to flight.' Hold before 
them the shield with which thou wast wont in 
the old time to protect thy chosen people. 
Give them swift feet, that they may pursue 
their enemies, and swords terrible as that of 
thy Destroying Angel, that they may cleave 
them down when they have overtaken them. 
Preserve these saints of thine, Almighty God, 
and bring them once more to their homes and 
friends, if thou canst do it consistently with 
thine high purposes. If, on the other hand, 
thou hast decreed that they shall die in battle, 
let thy spirit be with them and breathe upon 
them, that they may go up as a sweet sacrifice 
into the courts of thy temple, where are hab- 
itations prepared for them from the founda- 
tions of the world." 

Jdly 2. 

There is another prayer of Father Champion's, 
not so much of a classic as the one just quoted, 
but still worthy of remembrance. The parson 
was an ardent Federalist. He received the 
news of John Adams's election to the presidency 
with delight, but it was very hard to learn that 
Thomas Jefferson, that arch- Republican (to 
use the old phraseology), was vice-president. 



JULY. 107 

When Sunday came he prayed fervently for 
the president, and then added, " And, O Lord ! 
will thou bestow upon the vice-president a 
double portion of thy grace, for thou ktwwest he 
needs it l^' 

JiJiy 3- 

This is the day when firecrackers are bought, 
and when, for these many years, preparations 
are made for the great bonfire at the Center. 
As it is a long wait . till midnight, we may 
beguile the time with a story. Captain Alva 
Stone, a Civil War veteran whom everyone 
loves, told it to me in his inimitable way. As 
I write, I see again his keen, bright eyes, and 
note his eloquent cane giving emphasis to what 
he said. 

" There was one night when the ' Glorious 
Fourth ' was ushered in with a roar and 
racket that I can hear yet. The first stroke of 
the clock had scarce made itself heard, when 
the church bells rang out, guns were fired, fire- 
crackers went off by the pack, — and mingled 
and jumbled with all this noise were blasts 
from tin horns, and shouts from enthusiastic 
'Young America.' 

" I had had a broken sleep during the earlier 
hours, but now I was wide awake. The first 
fifteen minutes I rather enjoyed the fun, then 
I wished for quiet ; at the end of half an hour 
I grew a little impatient. Was this outlandish 
din to go on forever ? Then I got downright 
7 



Io8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

mad, and vowed that if I could ever get hold 
of the young fellows ringing those church 
bells, I would give them a flogging. By and 
by this feeling wore itself away, and I was lost 
in admiration of their indomitable persistence. 
" In the morning, as I was on my way up 
town, I hailed the first boy I met, and said, 
' My boy, did you have a hand in that bell- 
ringing ? ' 'Yes,' said he. 'Well,' said I, 'I 
admire your pluck and endurance. Take 
this ! ' — and thrusting my hand into my pocket, 
I gave him all the loose change I had." 

Jdjiy 4. 

1753. — Judah Champion is ordained pastor of 
the Congregational church and continues in 
that relation for fifty-seven years, having the 
assistance of a colleague during the last eleven 
years. 

Thy Reverend Champion, — champion of the truth; 
I see him yet, as in my early youth ; 
His outward man was rather short than taU, 
His wig was ample, though his frame was small. 
Active was his step and cheerful was his air, 
And oh how free and fluent was his prayer ! 

— John Pierpont : Litchfield County Ceiiteiuiial. 

1776. — Oliver Wolcott signs the Declaration 
of Independence. 

Bold Wolcott m'ged the all nnportant cause, 
With steady hand the solemn scene he draws ; 
Undaunted firmness with his wisdom joined, 
Nor kings, nor worlds could warp his steadfast mind. 
— Joel Barlow : Vision of Cohimbits. 





OLIVER WOLCOTT, 



JULY. 109 

Oliver Wolcott was appointed first sheriff of 
this county in 175 r. For forty-six years he was 
continuously in public life, and died while Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut. During the Revolution, 
as member of Congress, and as a general in the 
army, he rendered indefatigable service to the 
Patriot cause. 

1826. — The semi-centennial of the Declara- 
tion of Independence was elaborately cele- 
brated. At the Congregational church the 
Declaration "was read by T. Smith, Esq., in a 
manner well worthy of that most eloquent and 
interesting document." J. P. Brace was the 
orator of the occasion. The citizens then went 
to the banquet at the Court House. The list 
of toasts was interminable. TJic Cause of tJic 
Greeks was drunk in silence, and the Patriots of 
tJie South America n Repu lilies were not forgotten. 
At last the citizens retired, and the '' gentle- 
men of the Law Office " had eight more toasts. 
vSix Southerners spoke. The last sentiment 
responded to in this New England town was : 
" The enemies of John C. Calhoun ; may they 
be lathered with aqua fortis and shaved with a 
hand-saw ! " 

1876. — At the Centennial Celebration in 
Litchfield, the Declaration was read, as in 1826, 
by Truman Smith, who had meantime been 
senator from Connecticut. The Historical 
Address, a model of accuracy and compactness 
was delivered bv Georo-e C. Woodruff. 



no LITCHFIELD I5()OK OF DAYS. 

1893.— The Casino is formally opened. 
Alexander McNeill was the first to suggest the 
building of this fine club house. Back of the 
building are ample grounds for tennis and 
golf. Votaries of the latter game will also find 
links on the slope of East Hill. Were 
"Penelope," — to whom Kate Douglas Wiggin 
has introduced us,— making her progress 
through East street or West street of a summer 
morning, she might think she were in a town 
in the highlands of Scotland. 

JiJiy 5- 

1784. — My dear Eliza: You want to know 
what we are about on this Western Hill. Since 
you will not be so good as to come and see, I 
will tell you that our sister Laura is thinking 
and dreaming of her Beloved. As my soul w^as 
not made to be puffed away in sighs, I spend 
many an hour of clear coinfoi-f in the Grove, the 
Bower, and my Chamber. At this delightful 
season when all nature is singing, I think it 
best to dismiss all our cares, and give them a 
parole till sullen Winter returns, when we can 
think of nothing else ; and I believe after all, 
Eliza, there are few of us that have not our 
pensive moments, — and at every season. For 
myself, I will confess that I have often at 
this very summer retired to the brink of a 
purling stream, and thought how convenient a 
place it was for a despairing lover to end his 




'ii^ 



JULY. Ill 

days ! I have recommended it to two or three, 
but they are not yet far enough gone to take 
the leap. — Mariann Wolcott : Letter to Miss 
StougJitou {Mrs. Oliver Wolcott, Jr.). 

Jdly 6. 

Were we writing a formal history, large 
space would be given to Seth P. Beers. A 
native of Woodbury, for over fifty years he was 
a leading citizen here. His career culminated 
in his appointment as sole School Commis- 
sioner of the State. For nearly a quarter of a 
century he administered the school fund with 
such ability that Connecticut still owes his 
memory a debt of gratitude. 

He was a self-made man, and, mindful of his 
own early strug'gles, aided and encouraged 
many young men here and elsewhere to a suc- 
cessful career. Prof. Beers of Yale is his 
grandson. 

July 7. 

As we pass by St. Anthony's Roman Catholic 
church we are not thinking of the mediaeval 
saint gone to his reward near eight hundred 
years ago, but our imagination calls up the 
picture of a Litchfield woman. Miss Julia Beers, 
the real founder of this strong parish church. 

She was the daughter of Seth P. Beers. 
While at John P. Brace's school in Hartford 
she met James R. Bayley, a gifted young 
student at Trinitv. Those who knew them 



112 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

both well, believe that they were eng-aged to be 
married. Bayley subsequently studied under 
Dr. Jarvis at Middletown, but instead of 
becoming- a clergyman in the Protestant Epis- 
copal church entered the Roman Catholic 
priesthood. To-day he is remembered as an 
archbishop. 

Nine years passed away, then Miss Beers 
was baptized a Roman Catholic by the friend 
of her school days. She lived for a time at the 
Convent of Mercy in New York. But the 
rigors of the religious life proved too much for 
her constitution. After a trip abroad she 
returned to Litchfield. Through her instru- 
mentality the fine location on vSouth street was 
secured for her church. The Catholic Transcript 
has reason enough to pay her a noble tribute. 
We quote one of its paragraphs : 

" It was she who cared for the altar, for the 
instruction of the children whom she tenderly 
loved, and for the guidance and encourage- 
ment of the whole conofreo-ation ; for when, as 
often happened in those days of difiicult travel, 
the priest did not arrive at the hour expected, 
she would gather the waiting people upon their 
knees, and lead them in the rosary and other 
devotions. On those Sundays when there w^as 
no mass, the people met at her house where 
she gave instructions to the children, after 
which all joined in the rosary. This was to 
her a work of love, and was continued with 
ardor while she remained in Litchfield." 




SI . ANTHONY S ROMAN CAllKJlJC CHlRCll. 



JULY. 113 

She was not disinherited by her father, 
thoug-h it is true that her portion of the estate 
was held in trust for her during- her lifetime. 

After the death of her parents, she went to 
Rome, where she died, and is buried. 

July 8. 

1888. — St. Anthony's Roman Catholic church 
is dedicated by Bishop McMahon. Rev. T. R. 
Sweeney was parish priest at the time. He has 
been succeeded by Rev. P. H. Finnegan and 
Rev. P. M. Skelley. Would that Father 
Smith, who used to come all the way from 
Albany forty years before to administer the 
mass to the few scattered Roman Catholics, 
could have been present on this eventful day ! 
And James Morris, Jr., too, our old-time his- 
torian, with the pen of a ready writer ! He 
would have had to revise his famous S/afistics a 
bit, for this is what he wrote not far from 181 5 : 

"Only two European families have settled in 
Litchfield ; they came from Ireland and were 
respectable." 

July 9. 

1776. — The leaden statue of King George 
III. at Bowling Green, New York, is pulled 
down by the Sons of Liberty. It was subse- 
quently broken up and sent to General Wolcott. 
Ebenezer Hazard, who wrote about this time to 
General Gates, was right in his conjecture that 



114 LITCHFIELD P.OOK OF DAYS. 

the redcoats "would have melted majesty 
fired at them." 

Jdly 10. 

Just when the King George statue arrived in 
Litchfield we do not know, but when it did 
come, this was what was done with it : " Fred- 
erick Wolcott, who was a boy at the time, 
informed me a few years ago that he well 
remembered the circumstance of the statue 
being sent there, and that a shed was erected 
for the occasion in an apple orchard adjoining 
the house, where his father chopped it up with 
the wood axe, and the ' girls ' had a frolic in 
running the bullets and making them up into 
cartridges."^ George C. Woodruff: History 
of Litchfield. 

A memorandum in General Wolcott's hand- 
writing states that 42,088 cartridges were made. 

Jdly II. 

As New York city was in the hands of the 
British during most of the Revolution, New- 
England's line of communication with the 
American arm}" in the jNIicldle States lay 
through Litchfield and the Hudson river posts. 
This place naturally became an important 
depot for military supplies. One storehouse 
was at the head of North street, another 
on the site of the present Court House. 
A workshop for the army stood on East street, 
just west of the cemetery. The old jail which 



JULY. 115 

Stood on East street, about where the school - 
house stands, is where Governor Franklin was 
confined. 

Jijiy 12. 

1 814. — "Dear Sister, — I arrived vSaturday at 
sunset, and found all well, and boy (Henry 
Ward) in merry trim, glad at heart to be safe 
on terra firma after all his jolts and tossings. 
I left my goggles in the paper box for combs, 
on the toilet table where I slept the first night, 
the night we turned everything topsy-turvy to 
make room for the influx of company. 
Pray save me some pink seed of your double 
pink, and lay mc down some honeysuckle of 
all sorts that you have, and save me a striped 
rose. I have never seen one. Good night. — 
RoxANA Beechkr : Letter to Harriet Foote. 

July 13. 

Hiel Jones, in virtue of his place on the 
high seat of the daily stage that drove through 
Poganuc Center on the Boston turnpike, felt 
himself invested with a sort of grandeur as 
occupying a predominant position in society 
from whence he could look down on all its 
movements and interests. Every housekeeper 
charged him with her bundle, or commissioned 
him with her errand. Bright-eyed damsels 
smiled at him from their windows as he drove 
up to house doors, and of all that was going on 
in Poofanuc Center or anv of the villa^fes for 



no LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

twenty miles around, Hiel considered him- 
self as a competent judge or critic. — Harriet 
Be EC HER Stowe : Poganuc People. 

July 14. 

Hiram Barnes, whose home w^as a little house 
by vSouth Bridge, was a typical, jolh" stage- 
driver whom Mrs. vStowe has no more over- 
drawn in her ''Hiel Jones" of " Poganuc Peo- 
ple " than she has his wife, " Nabby Higgins," 
who is a composite character depicting in part 
the dear old bright-eyed Aunt Emily Addis of 
our early recollection, and, in part, her sister 
Sally, who became Hiram's wife. — Esther H. 
Thompson : Enquirer. 

JiJiy '5- 

1829. — The Congregational Church dedicates 
its third house of worship. This is the present 
Armory Hall. On the same day, Laurens P, 
Hickok was ordained pastor. His ministry 
here was most fruitful. Many aged persons 
look back with affection and respect to him. 

Dr. Hickok subsequently became widely 
known as an educator, and the author of books 
in the realm of ethics and psychology. 

July 16. 

How well I remember Judge Reeve's house, 
wide, roomy, and cheerful. It used to be the 
Eden of our childish imagination. I remember 



JULY. 117 

the great old-fashioned garden, with broad 
alleys set with all sorts of stately bunches of 
flowers. It used to be my reward, when I had 
been good, to spend a Saturday afternoon there, 
and walk up and down among the flowers, and 
pick currants off the bushes. 

— Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

Jdly 17. 

In after years, wherever Lyman Beecher 
went, those families he was accustomed often- 
est to visit on terms of closest intimacy, he was 
wont to call his "Judge Reeve places." — 
Charles Beecher. 

JiJiy 18. 

Judge Reeve's house was built in 1773. How 
many illustrious memories gather about the 
home of the founder of the first law school 
in America I There are other places that are 
holy ground than those over which a bishop 
has read words of consecration. Here is one of 
them. While this house stands it bears wit- 
ness to a life that was lived on the heights. 
We may smile at the Judge's absent-minded- 
ness, but should we forget to revere his mem- 
ory, the very stones of the town would cry out 
against us. 

This house was the home, too, of Sally Burr, 
and of her cousin Amelia Ogden, and of Eliza- 
beth Thompson. Here Aaron Burr and Theo- 
dosia Provost and Lafayette were entertained. 



Il8 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

And, in recent years, an added interest has 
been given to the house from the fact that it 
was the summer home of Judge Woodruff of 
the United States Circuit Court. Here he lived, 
a worthy successor of the great and good judge 
before him ; here, too, in a like faith, he passed 
away. 

July 19. 

1825. — I thought last evening our street pre- 
sented the most solemn scene I had ever wit- 
nessed. I left the house of a dying saint (Mrs. 
S.) about nine o'clock. Many persons were 
hanging about the doors and yard in perfect 
stillness. I crossed the street and stepped 
softly into the anxious meeting, where a hun- 
dred poor sinners were all on their knees before 
God, and your father was in the midst, plead- 
ing with strong cries and tears for the mercy 
of God. Around the doors were a number of 
people, solemn as death. I could not but say, 
" How awful is this place ! This is none other 
than the house of God and the gate of heaven." 
— Mrs. Lyman Beecher [Harriei' Porter]. 

Jdly 20. 

This town was originally among the number 
of those decidedly opposed to the movements 
of former revivalists [at the time of the Great 
Awakening], and went so far in a regular 
church meeting called expressly for the pur- 
pose under the ministry of the venerable Mr. 



JULY. 119 

Collins, as to let them know, by a unanimous 
vote, that they did not wish to see them. The 
effect was they did not come. The report 
circulated that Litchfield " had voted Christ 
out of their borders." It was noticed by some 
of the older people that the death of the last 
person then a member of the church was a 
short time before the commencement of our 
revival. — Rev. Dan Huntington: Kilboiinics 
History. 

]ilVj 21. 

1861. Battle of Bull Run. Mrs. Hubbard 
informs me that when the news of this crush- 
ing defeat reached town, John H. Hubbard 
went into the yard where some men were 
painting the summer-house and told them to 
stop work. "This is no time to spend money 
for such improvements. The government 
needs every dollar now." That summer-house 
was not painted till after the war was over. 
Mr. Hubbard spent his money freely during 
the war in recruiting troops, and in assisting 
the families of soldiers at the front. He was 
congressman from 1863 to 1867. As he was an 
ardent Administration man, Lincoln liked and 
trusted him. As Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard on 
one occasion were attending a White House 
reception, Lincoln spied them over the heads 
of those nearer him, and called out heartily, 
"Why, here comes Old Connecticut ! " 



I20 LITCHFIELD liOOK OF DAYS. 

Jdly 22. 

1 791. The Episcopal church was offered at 
Litchfield, and here I preached, with very little 
faith, on the love of Christ. I thought Morse's 
account of his countrymen is near the truth. 
Never have I seen any people who could talk 
so long and so constantly and so seriously 
about trifles. — Francis Asburys Journal. 

July 23. 

Bishop Asbury, from whom we have just 
quoted, was the founder of American Metho- 
dism. In two respects he is not only un- 
equaled, but unrivaled by anyone in the 
history of American Christianity. In arduous- 
ness of service who can compare with him ? 
For forty-five years he traveled, mostl}^ on 
horseback, over six thousand miles a year, and 
averaged one sermon a day. And what of 
tangible results ? " When he commenced his 
labors in this country there were about six 
hundred members ; when he fell it was victori- 
ously at the head of two hundred and twelve 
thousand." That was in 1816. In 1864 Lincoln 
wrote: "The Methodist church sends more 
soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospital, 
more pra3^ers to heaven than any other." 
Even here, in the home of the Beechers and 
Bushnell, the visit of that Apostolic man is a 
noteworthy event. 

On that July day he preached in weariness 



JULY. 121 

and discouragement, and then, mounting- his 
horse in front of Old St. Michael's, he jour- 
neyed out of sight over the Litchfield hills. 

July 24. 

Until the Meadow Street Church was built 
in 1837, the early Methodists met in private 
houses and then in the Town Hall. In the 
great old-fashioned kitchens at Jacob Morse's, 
Sr., or at " Uncle Ben " Moore's, and at similar 
homes, they prayed and sang with such fervor, 
that local tradition has it, that when they met on 
Plumb Hill, they could be heard all the way to 
Town Hill. But, tradition aside, as we catch 
glimpses of their meetings through the gather- 
ing mist of the years, we may be sure that the 
voice of their supplications was heard on high, 
and that there the names of these men and 
women, now for the most part forgotten, are 
written out in full in the Lamb's Book of Life. 

J(jly 25. 

1794. — William A. Bradley, born. He be- 
came postmaster and mayor of the city of 
Washington. 

Jijiy 26. 

1 8 15. — Payne Kenyon Kilbourne, born. 
From 1845 to 1853 he was editor and proprietor 
of the Enquirer, In 1859, he published his 
" Histor}^ of Litchfield," put in type by himself. 
Mrs. Hollister informs me that he also collabo- 



122 LITCHFIELD ]K)()K OF DAYS. 

rated with Mr. Hollister in the latter's History 
of Connecticut, to the extent of furnishing- 
much of the data for that work, and verifying 
many of its facts. 

Jdly 27. 

T837. — The Methodist Episcopal Church 
dedicates its first house of worship, the building 
now used as a Masonic hall. 

Jacob Morse, vSr., cut the timbers in his 
woods and contributed them, while the great 
old-fashioned latch and lock were the gift and 
handiwork of " Uncle Ben " Moore. Look at 
them, next time you go through Meadow 
street, for they are fitting memorial of a char- 
acter that was as old-fashioned and solid as 
the lock. vStories of " Uncle Ben's " versatility 
still linger. Give him the opportunity, and he 
could conduct a prayer meeting for an hour 
unaided, and make it interesting, too. Sing- 
ing, prayer, exposition of scriptures, exhorta- 
tion, — through them all heaven's sunlight 
shone. 

One who remembers him writes : " He was 
tall and erect, with steady blue eyes, long, 
straight hair, and solemn dignity of manners. 
In extreme old age, he was blind, and his thin, 
white hair, parted in the middle, fell to his 
shoulders." 

Jdly 28. 

1 72 1. — The first white male child is born in 
Litchfield, Gershom Gibbs by name. He be- 



JULY. 123 

came a soldier in the Revolution, was taken 
prisoner at the downfall of Fort AVashington, 
and died in captivity. 

1 8 1 9. — Leverette W. Wessells, born. He was 
sheriff of the county for twelve years, organ- 
ized the Nineteenth Connecticut Volunteers, 
and was quartermaster-general during the ad- 
ministration of Gov. Andrews. 

Jdjiy 29. 

1866. — George A. Hickox became editor of 
the Enquirer, which he conducted with marked 
ability for twenty-five years. His successors 
have been C. R. Duffie, Jr., and George C. 
Woodruff. No higher tribute could be paid to 
the present management than was given by 
G. W. Newcomb during the Arctic weather of 
February, 1899. " What are you doing in town 
to-night, are you here to summon a doctor ? ' ' 
" No, Fve come to get the Enquirer ! " 

Jdly 30. 

A. B. vShumway has been connected with 
Litchfield journalism even longer than Hickox 
or Collier. He came here as foreman in 1859. 
The Enquirer, in its seventieth anniversary 
number, says of him: He "has served continu- 
ously in that position ever since, save for a gal- 
lant three-years record as an officer of the 
Nineteenth Connecticut, and for a brief period, 
i865-'66, as business manager. The record of 



124 LITCHFIELD LOOK OF DAYS. 

Captain Shumway is an enviable one, and we 
believe that there is hardly a printer in the 
country that can equal, let alone surpass, it." 
He has had the satisfaction of being unofficiall}^ 
the dean of a school of journalism. Amono- 
others trained in this office, have been E. W. 
Addis, lono- an editor in the state of New York, 
Fred E. Ives, who has won fame and fortune in 
photo-engraving, and George C. Rowe, a lead- 
ing colored man of the vSouth, preacher, edu- 
cator, and editor of the Charleston Enquirer. 

July 31. 

Litchfield journalism looks back to Thomas 
Collier as its founder. He established tlie 
Monitor in 1784, the same year the Law vSchool 
was founded. 

" No mines of coal, with its bitumen fat, 

Sleep in thy breast — thy gTanites tell us that ; 

Yet have thy laboring Cottiers done their part, 

Thy head to enlighten, and to warm thy heart. 

Their Sibyl leaves upon the winds were thrown, 

For others' benefit, if not their own." 

— John Pierpont : Litclifield County Centennial. 



fliJ<?iJSt I. 

1865. — Litchfield gives arousing welcome 
to the soldiers returned from the war, about 
three hundred of whom were present. There 
was a procession and speech making, a parade 
of "phantastiques," and no end of decoration 
and illumination. 

fld?tJ5t 2. 

vSometime in August, 1723, Joseph Harris 
was shot and scalped by the Indians. His 
body was found on the plain, since known as 
Harris Plain, not far from where the road 
turns to Milton. 

fiaqast 3. 

1893.— The Litchfield Historical Society is 
organized. It is to be hoped that the time will 
soon come when this organization will be ade- 
quately housed, for there are in the homes of 
this town many articles of rare historical inter- 
est which would be of tenfold more value if 
collected and arranged under the auspices of 
this societ}^ 

I have prided myself not a little upon having 
excellent barns. ... No wonder, then, 

(125) 



126 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

that I was somewhat taken aback a few months 
ago, when addressed by a tramp, who pointed 
to my largest and best barn, and asked what 
building it was. Upon being told that it was a 
barn, he replied, " Oh, I thought it was a poor- 
house. They have poorhouses just like it in 
the old country. " — F. Ratchford Starr : 
Fann Echoes. 

pu?a5t 5. 

I read and hear much that is absurd in re- 
gard to " points " in Jerseys, and long ago made 
up my mind that my schoolmaster was very 
remiss in not teaching me how to spell that 
simple word. I spell it " pints," and am fully 
convinced that the chief "point" of a cow is in 
the number of pints she yields.— F. Ratchford 
Starr ; Far/u Echoes. 

/^a(5ust 6. 

1873. — The present Congregational church 
is dedicated. Rev. Henry B. Elliott was act- 
ing pastor. His successors have been Rev. 
Allan McLean and Rev. Charles Symington, 
both of whom died at the same age, while in 
the service of the church. 

" The two men finished their work in the 
strength of their years, and the church is left 
once more in the mystery of life and death in 
its immediate presence. The church life may 
well be in close sympathy with the unseen 
life when such messages are sent to it. And 



AUGUST. 127 

what are the messages but the same that have 
been given to all the ages and in all Christian 
experience, that the unseen sphere is close to 
the seen ; that the door from the one to the 
other may open easily and at any time ; and 
that when it opens, and we are ready, all is 
beautiful and under the Father's care." — Presi- 
dent D WIGHT : Address on Rev. Charles Synii/ig- 
toii. 

Rev. John Hutchins, the present pastor, came 
here in 1895. 

1806. — The Democrats protest against the 
imprisonment of Editor Osborn. At sunrise 
seventeen guns are fired, a procession com- 
posed of men from far and near parade the 
streets, a public meeting is held, followed by a 
collation. Osborn was editor of the Witness, a 
rank Democratic paper in this stronghold of 
Federalism. He had been convicted of libel 
against Julius Deming, and had been impris- 
oned. His friends claimed he was shut up in 
an unwholesome room with the worst crim- 
inals. Naturally, Democrats everywhere were 
stirred up, and Litchfield Federalists came in 
for no end of denunciation. 

fliJiJdSt 7. 

Two colored men were discussing the demon- 
stration of August 6, 1806. "What does it 
mean ? " 

" Why, don't you know ? This is leap year, 
and the Fourth of July has come around again." 



128 LITCHFIELD ROOK OF DAYS. 

f\a(^as\: 8. 

1888. — Fire bells ring at 12.30 a. m. The 
Beach building on West street is on fire. Two 
hours later, four business buildings are de- 
stroyed, and the new court house, which had 
just received its last coat of paint, is ablaze ; 
and like its predecessor of two years before 
goes up in fire and smoke. 

pu^djst 9. 

Sunday was to me the most uncomfortable 
day of the week, from the confinement in dress 
and locomotion which it imposed on me after 
Prayers and Breakfast. I was taken by my 
mother to a Wash Tub and thoroughly scrub- 
bed with Soap and Water from head to foot. I 
was then dressed in m}^ Sunday Habit which, 
as I was growing fast, was almost constantly 
too small. My usual dress at other times was 
a thin pair of Trousers and a Jacket of linsey- 
woolsey ; and I wore no shoes except in frosty 
weather. On Sunday morning I was robed in 
Scarlet Cloth Coat with Silver Buttons, a white 
Silk Vest, white Cotton Stockings, tight Shoes, 
Scarlet Cloth Breeches with Silver Buttons to 
match my Coat, a close Stock, Ruffles at the 
Breast of my Jacket, and a cocked Beaver Hat 
with gold laced Band. In this attire I was 
marched to the Meeting House with orders 
not to soil my Clothes, and to sit still, and by 






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AUGUST. 129 

Ro means to pla}^ during meeting-time. — Oli- 
ver WoLCOTT, Jr. 

flU§dJSt 10. 

Parson Champion succeeded Parson Collins, 
our first Minister, Doctor, and Justice of the 
Peace. Mr. Champion was a pleasant, affable 
man and a sonorous, animated Preacher. I 
liked loud preaching and suffered only from 
the confinement of my vSunday dress. Mr. 
Champion not un frequently exchanged vSunday 
seryices with a neighboring Parson, whose per- 
formances were most uncomfortable. They 
were dull, monotonous, and yery long, in the 
afternoon they frequently exceeded two hours 
As I was not allowed to sleep during meeting 
time, my sufferings were frequently extreme. 
— Oliver Wolcott, Jr. 

Pd^dSt II. 

After' seryice new toils awaited me. Our 
Sunday was in fact the old Jewish vSabbath, 
continued from sunset to sunset. In the inter- 
yal from the end of seryices in the Meeting 
House until sunset, my father read to the fam- 
ily from the Bible or some printed sermon, 
and when he was done, I was examined by my 
mother in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism. 
I learned to recite this in self-defense ; and I 
comprehended it then as well as at any time 
afterwards. When this task was ended, I was 



130 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

allowed to resume my ordinary Habit. It ex- 
hilarates my spirits, even at present, to think 
of the ecstacies I enjoyed when I put on my 
Jacket and Trousers and quit my vStockings 
and Shoes. I used to run to the Garden Lawn 
or into the orchard ; I would leap, run, lie down 
and roll on the grass, in short play all the gam- 
bols of a fat calf when loosened from confine- 
ment. — Oliver Wolcott, Jr. 

^dJ^tlSt 12. 

1776. — David Matthews, the royalist mayor 
of New York, who was a political prisoner in 
Litchfield, writes to his wife : " Ever since my 
arrival here, I have been at the house of Capt 
Moses vSeymour, who, together with his wife, 
have behaved in the most genteel, kind man- 
ner, and have done everything in their powei 
to make my time as agreeable as possible. He 
is a fine merry fellow, and she is a warm Prot- 
estant ; and if it was not the thoughts of home 
were continually in my mind, I might be happy 
with my good landlord and his family." 

/^u^ijst 13. 

1851. — This was the first day of the Centen- 
nial Celebration of the organization of Litch- 
field County. A vast throng from all parts of 
the County and from distant places gathered at 
West Park. Samuel Church, at that time chief 
justice of the State, delivered an historical ad- 



AUGUST. 131 

dress. John Pierpont, the celebrated Unita- 
rian clergyman and man of letters, was the 
poet of the occasion. 

" Thy fathers, Litchfield County, are at rest : 
Thy children meet to-day to call thee blest. 
Honored and loved as by them all thou art, 
They leave their homes, and gather to thy heart, 
To see once more thy venerable face. 
Once more to feel thy motherly embrace, 
Each other's voice to hear, to clasp once more 
Each other's hand, still warm, and to implore 
God's blessing on thee, for all coming time." 
— John Pierpont : Litchfield County Centennial. 

/August 14. 

1 85 1. — On the second day of the Centennial 
celebration, Horace Bushnell delivered one of 
the noblest orations known in the history of 
American oratory. His " Age of Homespun " 
is a magnificent tribute to the services of im- 
historic and forgotten men and women, who, 
after all, have done more than the illustrious 
few to make the history of the County what it is. 

/^tjgijst 15. 

If you ask who made this Litchfield County 
of ours, it will be no sufficient answer that you 
o-et, however instructive and useful, when vou 
have gathered up the names that appear in our 
public records, and recited the events that have 
found an honorable place in the history of our 
county, or the republic. You must not go into 



132 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

the burial places and look only for the tall 
moniiments and titled names. . . . Around 
the honored few, here a Bellamy or a Day 
sleeping in the midst of his flock ; here a Wol- 
coLt or a vSmith, an Allen or a Tracy, a Reeve 
or a Gould, all names of honor — round about 
these few, and others like them, are lying mul- 
titudes of worthy men and women under their 
humbler monuments, or in graves that are hid- 
den by the monumental green that loves to 
freshen over their forgotten resting-place ; and 
in these, the humble but good many, we are to 
say are the deepest, truest causes of our happy 
history. — Horace Bushnell : LitcJificld County 
Centennial. 

fldj?d5t 16. 

Litchfield has always been famed for lon- 
gevity, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's words 
still have application : " Nobody ever seemed 
to be sick or to die either, at least while I was 
there. The natives grew old till they could 
not grow any older, and then they stood still, 
and lasted from generation to generation." 

Mrs. Mary Adam.s, mother of Chief Justice 
Adams, was born in 1698, and died in 1803, and 
so had the very unusual experience of living in 
three centuries. And, as if this were not enough, 
she rode on horseback thirty miles in one day 
after she had passed her one hundredth year. 

The oldest person in the town at present is 
Miss Rebecca Osborn, in the ninety-eighth 



AUGUST. 133 

year of her age. She was born in the house 
she now lives in ; her father was also born in 
that house, which was built by her grandfather 
in the last century. 

/^tKjast 17. 

1774. — The inhabitants of Litchfield, in legal 
town meeting, protest against the operation of 
the Boston port bill, and authorize subscriptions 
for the relief of the poor in that town. 

On the same day, Aaron Burr writes from 
the home of his brother-in-law, Judge Reeve : 
" Before I proceed further, let me tell you that 
a few days ago, a mob of several hundred per- 
sons gathered at Barrington, and tore down the 
house of a man who was suspected of being 
unfriendly to the liberties of the people, broke 
up the court then sitting at that place, etc. As 
many of the rioters belonged to this colony, 
and the Supreme Court was then sitting at this 
place, the sheriff was immediately dispatched to 
apprehend the ringleaders. He returned yester- 
day with eight prisoners, who were taken with- 
out resistance. But this minute there are enter- 
ing the town on horseback, with great regular- 
ity, about fifty men, armed each with a white 
club, and I observe others continually dropping 
in." 

PlK^USt 18. 

1837. — The Milton Episcopal Church is con- 
secrated by Bishop Brownell. 



134 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

j^dijdst 19. 

1798. — The Milton Congregational Chtircli is 
organized. The Third Ecclesiastical vSociety 
had been organized some years before, and 
there had been occasional preaching at Milton, 
as the following minute of 1779 (exact date not 
given) shows : " Voted, That we will hire Mr. 
Stephen Heaton to preach with us seventeen 
days, for which we agree to give him thirty-five 
bushels of wheat or equivalent in money, to be 
paid by the 20th of November, 1780." 

t8o8. — Frederick Henry Wolcott, born. He 
was one of the sons of Frederick Wolcott. 
After a business career in New York, he re- 
tired in middle life, and gave himself entirely 
to philanthropic work. He was one of the most 
influential Presbyterains of his day, and sat for 
several terms in the General Assembly of that 
church. 

/^d§iJ5t 20. 

One of my temptations to an afternoon walk 
was to meet the girls who, like ourselves, 
were often seen taking a daily walk. Among 
these were the Wolcotts, the Demings, the Tal- 
madges, the Landons, and Miss Peck, who after- 
wards became my wife. The Demings were 
always my warm friends, and to them I 
am indebted for many a kindness at a time 
when I was ill and weak, and the bystanders 
hardly expected me to live. Of the Wolcotts 



AUGUST. 135 

there were four, and I think now, as I did then, 
that I never beheld more beautiful women 
than were Hannah and Mary Ann Wolcott. 
Many a time have I met them on North street, 
when it was a pleasure to look upon them, 
with the clearest complexions of white and red, 
the brightest eyes, with tall and upright 
forms, and graceful walk. These ladies would 
have attracted admiration in any place in the 
world. — E. D. Mansfield : Personal Memories. 

fldiJiJSt 21. 

Hannah and Mary Ann Wolcott, alluded to 
in the quotation for August 20, were the daugh- 
ters of Frederick Wolcott. If the men of the 
AVolcott family were distinguished for sev- 
eral generations, the women were no less 
so. Every one in Litchfield, save some of the 
younger school children and recent summer 
boarders, knows what Senator Tracy said 
in reference to Mrs. Oliver Wolcott, Jr. Dur- 
ing the second administration of Washington, 
no one was more admired in the society of the 
Capital than the wife of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. Mr. Liston, the British minister, said 
one day to vSenator Tracy, " Your country- 
woman, Mrs. Wolcott, would be admired even 
at St. James." "Sir," was the reply, "she is 
admired even on Litchfield Hill." 



136 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

pia(^us\: 22. 

Judge Reeve was noted for his chivalrous 
devotion to woman, both in and out of the do- 
mestic circle. His first wife, the sister of 
Aaron Burr, was a delicate invalid, confined to 
her bed for many years, and various interesting 
stories are told of his tender watching and 
unwearied care. He was a great admirer of 
female beauty and also of female talent, and 
various anecdotes were current of his chival- 
rous sayings. Among others, this especially 
attracted my childish interest, that he never 
saw a little girl, but he wished to kiss her, for 
if she w^as not good, she would be ; and he 
never saw a little boy, but he wished to whip 
him, for if he was not bad, he would be. — 
Catherine Beecher. 

flautist 23. 

1780. — Washington and Hamilton enter- 
tained at Oliver Wolcott's, en route to West 
Point. 

AVhile Frederick Wolcott was a Yale student 
(he graduated in 1787), he received many a 
bright letter from his sister Mariann at Litch- 
field. Under this date (year not given) she 
w^rites : 

" Verily, Frederick, there is no sense 
in living in this world; if I had one wing, one 
single pinion to buoy me up, I would endeavor 
to keep aloof from it. 




RESIDENCE OF PROF. J, M. HOPPIN. 



AUGUST. 137 

" I expect to see you at Commencement. I 
shall go with — my Papa. I believe we shall 
come in a carriage for the sake of confabula- 
tion. I have been dancing all the forenoon, 
and my hand trembles so that I can hardly 
write intelligently. We dance again this even- 
ing, and we all wish for your company. Mean- 
time you are poring over some antiquated sub- 
ject that is neither instructive nor entertaining. 
You cannot say so of our dancing, it is an 
amusement that profits the mind. . . . 
" Heaven bless you. — Mariann." 
1 791. Clark Woodruff, born. He became 
one of the leaders of the Louisiana bar, and 
judge of the eighth judicial district of the state. 

pd(?ust 24. 

The oldest house on North street is the one 
owned by Prof. J. M. Hoppin. It was built in 
1760 by Elisha Sheldon, who, as judge and 
member of Council, exerted much public influ- 
ence in his day. His son, Samuel Sheldon, 
used the house as a tavern, and a famous one 
it was, too. Washington was entertained there, 
spending a night in the northeast room. Sub- 
sequently, the place passed into the hands of 
Uriah Tracy, the brilliant United States sena- 
tor. Here are enough memories to last a 
house forever, but we have only touched upon 
the first fifty years. 



138 LITCHFIF.1,1) HOOK OF DAYS. 

fld^ijst 25. 

In this century, the house has been known 
as the Gould House, and latterly as the Hoppin 
House. James Gould was a son-in-law of Sen- 
ator Tracy, and associate and successor of 
Tapping- Reeve in the famous Law School. 
We have already alluded to the fact that his 
lectures were delivered in his office, which 
stood just south of the house. Prof. James M. 
Hoppin, known everywhere to students of the- 
ology and art, and to lovers of good literature, 
bought this house of Judge Gould's daughter 
in 1 871; and has made it his summer home 
ever since. Miss Jeanie Gould Lincoln, in 
writing Au UmviUiug Maid, though she speaks 
of the Wolcott House, is thought to have been 
writino' more from her memorv of her orand- 
father's home in North street. 

fld<5tjst 26. 

When Congress sat in Philadelphia, a Litch- 
field County man was seen driving a drove of 
mules through the streets. A North Carolina 
member congratulated the late Mr. Tracy upon 
seeing so man}^ of his constituents that morn- 
ing, and inquired where they were going, to 
which he facetiousl}" replied, that they were 
going to North Carolina to keep school. — Judge 
Church : Lite Ji field County Coitcmiial. 

Truly this is an age of destructive criticism. 
Prof. Hoppin, the owner of Senator Tracy's old 



AUGUST. 139 

home, claims this anecdote for a Rhode Island 
congressman. 

/^ijijdjst 27. 

1826. — I hope to begin to preach in about fiv^e 
years, and so our dear mother's prayers will be 
answered. I found a paper the other day 
written by her in which I find she used to rise 
before day to pray, and that she used to dedi- 
cate her sons to God to be his servants in his 
cause. — William Beecher. 

The passage in Uncle Tom's Cabin where 
vSt. Clair describes his mother's influence is a 
simple reproduction of this mother's influence 
as it has always been in her family. — Harriet 
Beecher vStowe. 

j^dJ^dSt 28. 

I could give you introductions to numbers of 
most excellent people. Litchfield was famous 
for good society. I would send you notes, but 
you would have to deliver them in the grave- 
yard, always hospitable to the dead, and inhos- 
pitable to the living. And yet if you should go 
over to the east of the town, and wandering in 
the burial ground, you should find a stone 
marked Roxana Foote Beecher, please imcover 
your head, and drive from your mind all but 
heavenly thoughts. — Henry Ward Beecher : 
Letter to Fanny Fern. 



140 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

pu?iJ5t 29. 

1792. — P'rederick A. Tallmadge, born. For 
many years he was one of the foremost citizens 
of New York, president of the State Senate, 
member of Congress, Recorder of the City, and 
Superintendent of the New York police. 

1804. — Joshua Huntington Wolcott, born. He 
became a member of the famous Boston house, 
A. and A. Lawrence & Co. During tlie Civil 
War he was treasurer of the Boston vSanitary 
Commission. Gov. Roger Wolcott of Massa- 
chusetts is his son. 

The village library, which dates from the 
spring of 1862, was named, a few months after 
it was established, the Wolcott Library, in rec- 
ognition of the generosity of Joshua Wolcott, 
and in respect to the honored name he bears. 

Pd^ust 30. 

1832. — Edward W. Seymour, born. 

Judge Fenn, his colleague in the Supreme 
Court, wrote of him as follows, upon learning 
the news of his sudden death in 1892 : "The 
eldest son of the late Chief Justice Origen S. 
Seymour, he inherited the rare judicial tem- 
perament, the calm, candid, impartial judg- 
ment, the love of mercy-tempered justice, so 
essentially characteristic of his father. Edu- 
cated at Yale College, a graduate of the famous 
class of 1853, studying law in his father's office, 
early and frequently called to represent his 



AUGUST. 141 

native town, and later his vSenatorial district in 
the General Assembly, a useful member of 
Congress for four years, having in the mean- 
time, by devotion to his profession, as well as 
by natural ability, become the acknowledged 
leader of the bar in the two counties of Litch- 
field and Fairfield ; certainly it was the princi- 
ple of natural selection which three years ago 
led to his choice as a member of our highest 
judicial tribunal, — the Supreme Court of 
Errors of this State." 

J. H. Olmstead of Stamford, in speaking be- 
fore the Fairfield County Bar, said : 

" He wore the ermine so modestly, and was 
so kind and considerate on the bench. He re- 
garded the feelings of the cotmsel, whether old 
or young, as well as the feelings of the parties 
and all connected wdth the cases on trial. Dur- 
ing the brief time he was on the bench, he 
proved himself a model judge, giving great 
promise of the future. . . . 

But paramount to all else in the life of Judge 
Seymour, stands out the fact that he was a true 
Christian gentleman. . . . The life and 
character and death of such a man is refresh- 
ing to believers in these materialistic days." 

j^ij^dst 31. 

Personally, Judge [E. W.] Seymour was one 
of the loveliest of men, a favorite with his 
class in college, the life of all companies, 



142 UTCIIFIKLI) I'.OOK OF DAYS. 

always respected, always beloved. As it 
should be with every man, his ways grew more 
serious with age, but his wit was as ready, as 
spontaneous as ever. His talk was always 
refreshing to young and old, always kindly, 
always eleanly. To his strong attachment to 
his church, to his family, and to his home, his 
whole life testified. — G. A. Hickox : Enquirer. 

There was no one who took more account of 
the common, everyday affairs of his street 
associates, interesting himself in all that went 
for their happiness, the improvement of their 
places, and the good of the town. He knew 
every shrub and tree that had been planted, 
had probably leaned over the fence and talked 
with the owner about it. . . . Plain people 
trusted him, and voted for him, too ; politics 
had little to do with it. 

He " liked dumb beasts, and they trusted 
him," he knew birds well, knew all the wood 
roads where the cypripediums and wild calla 
grew, and took the neighborhood boys with 
him to get them. I thought myself fairly keen 
in the getting of rare wild flowers, but I 
seldom made a find that wasn't an old story to 
the judge. — Dr. H. E. Gates : Enquirer. 



September i. 

Moses Seymour, a native of Hartford, came 
to Litchfield in early manhood. He distin- 
guished himself in the Revolution, held various 
offices of public trust, and was town clerk for 
thirty-seven years. His wife was Molly, the 
daughter of Ebenezer Marsh. Their family 
consisted of five sons and one daughter. Two 
of the sons, Ozias and Moses, were sheriffs of 
this county, another, Epaphroditus, became a 
bank president in Brattleboro, Vermont. The 
careers of the two other sons, Henry and 
Horatio, we have noted elsewhere ; the daugh- 
ter became the wife of Rev. Truman Marsh. 

Septe(T)ber 2. 

Is there anything so delicious as roast pig, 
thought Oliver Wolcott, as he surveyed a fine 
litter in his barnyard. " Here, Pompey," call- 
ing to his faithful slave, " take two of these 
pigs up to Parson Champion with my comipli- 
ments." 

No sooner said than done ; the pigs are 
caught, and, despite their squealing, put into a 
bag, which is securely tied. It is quite a trip to 
the parson's, and as Pompey passes the house 
of Major Moses Seymour he determines to find 

(143) 



144 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

refreshment for his journey in the smiles, and 
perhaps the doughnuts and coffee, of Phyllis in 
the kitchen. While he is regaling- himself 
within. Major Seymour is enjoying himself 
without. Had he been a man of letters, he 
might have meditated upon the deliciousness 
of roast pig, and have anticipated Charles 
Lamb in his famous essay. But he is a man of 
action. He has opened the bag, let out the 
pigs, and put two puppies in their place. 

Pompey appears at last, and finishes his 
journey. When the bag was opened. Parson 
Champion was in no mood to enjo}^ a joke, and 
gruffly ordered Pompey home to his master. 
The poor slave was about speechless with 
astonishment, and when he got back to Major 
Seymour's again, he was glad to tell his story 
to the good major, who showed his amazement, 
and was kind and sympathetic. " Pompe}^, 
you had better step in and tell Phyllis about 
it," said Major Seymour; and while the slave 
was in the kitchen, quick hands freed the 
puppies and put back the pigs. 

A few moments later Oliver Wolcott, as he 
listened to Pompey's incoherent explanations, 
thought the man must be drunk or out of his 
head. " Why, what are you talking about ? 
Open that bag and let the pigs out." And 
sure enough there they were. " Pompey have 
you stopped anywhere on the way?" "Yes, 
sail ; yes, sah ; just a minute at Major Sey- 



SEPTEMBER. I45 

mour's." "Well," said his master, "that ex- 
plains it all." 

S(^pt(^mb(^r 3. 

Old Dr. Champion in the latter part of his 
ministry thought he had sinned away the day 
of grace, and that he was going to hell ; and 
he never showed himself so much a Christian 
as in the disposition which he manifested at 
that time. If it was God's will that he should 
go there, he was willing to go. He did not 
know what he should do in hell, till one day he 
solved the question satisfactorily in his own 
mind, and said, " I will open a prayer meeting 
there ! " He thought it would afford him some 
balm and consolation. I do not think that man 
ever got there. — Henry Ward Beecher : 
Scrjiion — Sin against the Holy Ghost. 

Sept<^mb(^r 4. 

1777. — Morris Woodruff, born. General 
Woodruff was a lifelong resident of the town, 
and w^as repeatedly, almost continuously, 
entrusted with public office. He represented 
the town in fourteen sessions of the legislature, 
and was magistrate of the county for twenty- 
six years. Upon the Litchfield of his day and 
upon the church of his choice, he left a deep 
impress by reason of his integrity and force of 
character. 



146 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

On one occasion, Morris Woodruff, upon his 
return from the legislature, was much annoyed 
to find that some of his directions concerning 
farm work had not been carried out. Salmon 
Brown, a brother of the famous John Brown, 
who was in Mr. Woodruff's employ, consoled 
him by saying, " Gin'ral, Gin'ral, don't you 
know that if you want anything did, you must 
did it yourself?" — George M. Woodruff. 

S(^pt(^mb(^r 6. 

John C. Calhoun studied law under Tapping 
Reeve. The following reminiscence of his 
Litchfield life is taken from a book highly 
prized by collectors of Americana — "The 
National Portrait Gallery," New York, 1835 : 

" It was in the debating society of this place, 
where the most agitating political topics of the 
da}^ were discussed before crowded meetings, 
that Mr. Calhoun, who was ever the champion 
of the republican side, first develo^Ded his great 
powers of parliamentary debate. It was his 
custom even then to prepare by reflection and 
not by arranging on paper what he meant to 
say, and not by taking notes of the arguments 
of others. A good memory preserved the 
order of his own thoughts, and a wonderful 
power of analysis and classification enabled 
him to digest rapidly, and to distribute in their 
proper places the answer and refutation of all 



SEPTEMBER. 



147 



the arguments of the speakers, however nu- 
merous, whom he followed." 

September 7. 

John C. Calhoun boarded for a time at the 
McMartin Place on Prospect street. The 
house was at that time the boyhood home of 
Hosea Webster, Mrs. H. B. Belden's father. 
He very well remembered helping- Calhoun set 
out some of the trees in front of the house. 

The elms in front of Dr. Page's are also 
claimed as his. Calhoun seems to have 
boarded in about as many houses as Washing- 
ton was entertained in. The southeast room 
of the second floor of the house now the 
Episcopal rectory was his room for a time. 

This was the house that Samuel Seymour 
built in 1784. His son Charles, when eighty- 
seven years of age, came on to attend the 
golden wedding of Judge and Mrs. Seymour. 
He searched the garret for a fishing-rod he 
had left on the rafters forty-five years before, 
but unfortunately looked in vain. 

September 8. 

I very well remember going back, after hav- 
ing arrived at years of manhood, to the school - 
house where I did not receive my early educa- 
tion. I measured the stones which in my child- 
hood it seemed that a giant could not lift, and 

I could almost turn them over with my foot ! 
9* 



148 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

I measured the trees which seemed to loom up 
into the sky wonderously large, but they had 
shrunk, grown shorter, and outspread narrower. 
I looked into the old schoolhouse, and how 
small the whittled benches and dilapidated 
they were, compared with my boyhood impres- 
sion of them ! I looked over the meadows, 
across which my toddling feet had passed. 
They had once seemed to me to be broad fields, 
but now but harrow ribbons, lying between the 
house and the water. I marveled at the appa-, 
rent change which had taken place in these 
things, and thought what a child I must have 
been, when they seemed to me to be things of 
great importance. The school ma'am — oh 
what a being I thought she was, and the school- 
master — how awe-struck I was at his presence. 
vSo looking and wistfully remembering, I said 
to m3^self, "Well, one bubble has broken." But 
when you shall stand above, and look back 
with celestial and clarified vision, upon this 
world — this rickety old schoolhouse earth, it 
will seem smaller to you than to me that old 
village school. — Henry Ward Beecher : Ai>- 
botfs Life. 

Septe/T)ber 9. 

E. D. Mansfield in his Personal Memories <g\N^^ 
the following glimpse of Judge Gould's lecture 
room : " At nine o'clock we students walked 
into the lecture room, with our note books under 
our arms. We had desks, and pen and ink to 



SEPTEMBER I49 

record the important principles and authori- 
ties. The practice of Judge Gould was to read 
the principle from his own manuscript twice 
distinctly, pausing between and repeating in 
the same manner the leading cases. After the 
lecture we had access to the law library to con- 
sult authorities." 

September lo. 

1805. — John Pierpont, born. He became 
judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont. 

1862. — The Nineteenth Connecticut Volun- 
teers marched in from Camp Button and re- 
ceived an elegant stand of colors from Mrs. 
William C. Noyes, her husband making the 
presentation address. 

September ii. 

Miss Pierce's schoolhouse was a small build- 
ing of only one room, probably not exceeding 
30 feet by 70, with small closets at each end, 
one large enough to hold a piano, and the others 
used for bonnets and over-garments. The 
plainest pine desks, long plank benches, a small 
table, and an elevated teacher's chair consti- 
tuted the whole furniture. When I began 
school there, she was the sole teacher. In pro- 
cess of time her nephew, Mr. John Brace, be- 
came her associate. — Catherine Beecher. 



150 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

8ept(^/T)ber 12. 

Mr. Brace was one of the most stimulating 
and inspiring instructors I ever knew. He was 
himself widely informed, an enthusiast in bot- 
any, mineralogy, and the natural sciences gen- 
erally, besides being w^ell read in English clas- 
sical literature. . . . Much of the training 
and inspiration of my early days consisted, not 
in the things I was supposed to be studying, 
but in hearing while seated unnoticed at my 
desk, the conversation of Mr. Brace with the 
older classes. — Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

September 13. 

1795. — Joseph E. Camp, ordained. He was 
the first pastor of the Northfield church, which 
he served forty-two years. On one occasion, 
he went over to preach at the Wolcott church, 
which was in such straits that it could not sup- 
port a settled minister. He gave out as his 
opening hymn a selection from Watts : 
" Lord, what a wretched land is this 
That yields us no supply." 

A smile stole over the congregation, and was 
in no wise lessened when the chorister an- 
nounced very avidibly the tune — " Northfield." 

Septe/T)ber 14. 

My servants had gone out for the evening, 
and I had just put the children to bed, when 
Mr, Hubbard came into the house, and told me 



SEPTEMBER. I5I 

that a number of enlisted men had just come 
to town, and that there were no preparations to 
receive them at Camp Button, and that the 
hotels were full. " They must be taken care 
of, for they are going- out to fight for us." So 
I looked up all my bedding, and then went in 
to Miss Ogden's and borrowed of her. That 
night nineteen soldiers slept in our house. — 
Mrs. Abby J. Hubbard. 

SeptefT^ber 15. 

1862. — The Nineteenth Connecticut Volun- 
teers, after giving three parting cheers for 
Camp Button, moved to Litchfield Station, 
en 7'oute for the seat of war. 

September 16. 

John Brown attended Morris Academy with 
his younger brother Salmon. A story of the 
two brothers is told, how John, finding that 
Salmon had committed some school ofi^ense, 
for which the teacher had pardoned him, said 
to the teacher : " Mr. Vaill, if Salmon had done 
this thing at home, father would have punished 
him. I know he would expect you to punish 
him now for doing this, — and if you don't I 
shall." That night finding Salmon was likely 
to escape punishment, John made good his 
word, — more in sorrow than in anger, — giving 
his brother a severe flogging. — F. B. Sanborn : 
Life of John Brown. 



152 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

Septe/nber 17. 

1862.— The Battle of Antietam. The Eighth 
Connecticut, containing two companies of 
Litchfield County troops, was engaged in this 
fight. Three men from this town were slain 
on the field. 

5eptemb(^r 18. 

John H. Hubbard, Congressman during the 
Civil War, writes from Washington to his wife : 

" How hard it is for me to be kept from you ! 
I think I can appreciate the great sacrifice of 
the men Avho leave their families to fight for 
their country. Is it not a wonder that more of 
them do not desert or die with homesickness? 
Poor fellows ! Many of them will come home 
to die in poverty and obscurity in spite of their 
brave generosity, I hope that their wives and 
children will continue to love them, and that 
God will help them." 

Sept(^(T)ber 19. 

1864.— The Battle of Winchester. The Nine- 
teenth Connecticut had been reorganized at 
Alexandria, and was known in its fighting days 
as the Second Connecticut Artillery. It was 
part of Gen. Upton's brigade that saved the day 
at Winchester. The regiment was under fire 
from the middle of the forenoon till about sun- 
set. T. F. Vaill tells the story of those fatal ten 




JOHN H. HUBBARD. 



SEPTEMBER. I53 

minutes which wroug-ht as much havoc as all 
the rest of the day : 

" The enemy's artillery, on a rise of ground 
in front, plowed the field with cannister and 
shells, and tore the ranks in a frightful man- 
ner. Maj. Rice was struck by a shell, his left 
arm torn off, and his body cut almost asunder. 
Maj. Skinner was struck on the top of the head 
by a shell, knocked nearly a rod with face to 
the earth, and was carried to the rear insensi- 
ble. Gen. Upton had a good quarter pound of 
flesh taken out of his thigh by a shell, and was 
laid up for some weeks ; several other officers 
were also struck, and from this instance some 
idea may be gained of the havoc among the en- 
listed men at this point." 

The regiment lost that day one hundred and 
thirty-six killed and wounded, fourteen of 
whom were officers. Three men from this 
town were among the slain; a fourth, mortally 
wounded, died a few days later. 

Sept(^mb(^r 20. 

Take the report of my doings on the platform 
of the world's business, and it has been naught. 
But still it has been a great thing even for me 
to live. In ni}^ separate and merely personal 
kind of life, I have had a greater epic trans- 
acted than was ever written, or could be. The 
little turns of my way have turned great 



154 



LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 



changes, — what I am now as distinguished 
from the merely molhisk and pulpy state of in- 
fancy ; the drawing-out of my powers, the cor- 
recting of my errors, the winnowing of my 
faults, the washing of my sins, that which has 
given me principles, opinions, and, more than 
all, a faith, and as the fruit of this, an abiding 
in the sense and free partaking of the love of 
God. . . . What a history of redemption 
and more ! — Horace Bushnell : Life and 
Letters. 

S(^pt(^/T)b(^r 21. 

Reckon as thy jewels, then. 
Thy saintly women and thy holy men. 
— John Pierpont : Litchfield County Centennial. 

S(^ptember 22. 

1849. — The first passenger train runs over 
the Naugatuck railroad to the terminus at Win- 
sted. 

September 23. 

Mother was one of those strong, restful, 
widely sympathetic natures in whom all around 
seemed to find comfort and repose. She was 
of a temperament peculiarly restful and peace- 
giving. Her union with the spirit of God, un- 
ruffled and unbroken even from childhood, 
seemed to impart to her an equilibrium and 
healthful placidity that no earthly reverses ever 
disturbed. — Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



SEPTEMBER. 



155 



September 24. 

The communion between my father and 
mother was a peculiar one. It was an inti- 
macy throughout the whole range of their 
being. Both intellectually and morally, he re- 
garded her as the better and stronger portion 
of himself, and I remember hearing him say 
that after her death, his first sensation was a 
sort of terror, like that of a child suddenly shut 
out alone in the dark. — Harriet Befcher 
Stowe. 

S(^pt(^mb(^r 25. 

1 816. — ^ Roxana Beecher died. Mrs. Reeve, 
in a letter written at the time, says : " Her 
soul lighted up and gilded the way as she en- 
tered the valley of death. She made a very 
feeling and appropriate prayer in my hearing. 
She told her husband that her views and antic- 
ipations of heaven had been so great that she 
could hardly sustain it. She dedicated her sons 
to God for missionaries. Mr. Beecher then 
made a prayer, and she fell into a sweet sleep 
from which she awoke in heaven." 

Harriet Beecher vStowe writes : " There was 
one passage of vScripture always associated with 
her in our minds in childhood ; it was this — 
' Ye are come unto Mt. Zion, the city of the liv- 
ing God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
innumerable company of angels ; to the gen- 
eral assembly of the Church of the first-born, 



156 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

and to spirits of just men made perfect.' We 
all knew that this was what our father re- 
peated to her when she was dying, and we often 
repeated it to each other. It was to that we 
felt we must attain, though we scarcely knew 
how." 

S(^pte(T)ber 26. 

1776. — David Matthews, the royalist mayor 
of New York, writes from Litchfield : " The 
committee have been compelled to request my 
removal in order to pacify some people. They 
insist I can blow up this town. Oh, that I 
could ! The sheriff has given orders that I 
shall not approach the gaol, lest the doors 
should fly open and the prisoners escape. I 
should not have returned to this cold wilder- 
ness had not the sheriff of Hartford declared 
he must lock me up in gaol. " 



S(^pt(^mb(^r 27. 

Shortly after his mother's burial, Henry 
Ward Beecher was discovered under Sister 
Catherine's window, digging with great zeal 
and earnestness. She called to him to know 
what he was doing, and, lifting up his curly 
head, with great simplicity he answered, "Why, 
I'm going to heaven to find ma." — Harriet 
Beecher Stowe. 



SEPTEMBER. 157 

S(^pt(^mb<^r 28. 

1738.— Town of Goshen is org-anized in the 
house of Deacon John Buel, West street, Litch- 
field. 

S<^pt(^mb(^r 29. 

1864. — Seth F. Plumb, for whom the Grand 
Army Post of this town is named, was killed 
at Chapin's Farms, Va. An army letter, writ- 
ten at the time, bears the following tribute : 
" Fairer character never graced a soldier's uni- 
form, and he lives embalmed in the affections 
of home and in the hearts of his comrades. He 
led in the closing prayer of that last meeting 
before the fight, and his last words, as the col- 
umn moved for the charge, were respecting 
'that good meeting' and the preciousness of 
Christ to the soldier." 



S(^pt(^mb<^r 30. 

1821. — Edward Beecher writes at the close 
of vSeptember : " Harriet reads everything she 
can lay her hands on, and sews and knits dili- 
gently. Henry and Charles go to school. Henry 
is sprightly and active, and Charles as honest 
and clumsy as ever. 

" And what shall I say more ? Shall I speak 
of our orchard, from which the gale blew off 



158 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

apples enough for twenty barrels of cider, and 
wherein are yet cider and winter apples with- 
out number ? Or of our cellar, wherein are 
barrels small and great ; moreover bins, boxes, 
and cupboards, which I have arranged, having 
cleansed the cellar with besom, rake, and wheel- 
barrow ? Or of the garden, in which are weeds 
of divers kinds, particularly pig ; yea, also beets, 
carrots, parsnips, and potatoes, the like whereof 
was never seen ? 

" Hear now the conclusion of the whole mat- 
ter. The family at Litchfield to the family at 
Guilford sendeth greeting, hoping we meet 
again in this world and rejoice together in the 
next." 



Oetobi^r I. 

No town-meeting in a New England commu- 
nity would be complete without its auction. 
. . . Everything is there, from a broken 
sewing-machine down to a rusty chain or a 
nicked axe old enough to have figured in the 
familiar legend of Washington's boyhood. 
Over all this conglomerate of truck stands the 
auctioneer, a predominating figure at Litchfield 
town-meetings, long to be remembered, and 
now, at seventy-seven, so old as to be a social 
landmark of the village. Tall and angular, 
with spectacled nose like the beak of a Roman 
galley set on the face of a Socrates, a voice like 
that of the Numidian lion, a ready tongue and 
a wit whose Attic salt Time has not even yet 
freshened, he does more to enliven a Litchfield 
town-meeting than all other characters united. 
Consistent piety, kindly and generous temper, 
and a simple, unaffected life round off the per- 
sonality of a man who, more than all the rest, 
seems to me to symbolize the spirit of those 
town-meetings at which he has been auctioneer 
for time out of mind. Good old Tom Salton- 
stall ! Long may he live to knock down to the 
highest bidder the archaic kettle and the pris- 
lo (159) 



l6o LirCHKIKLJ) I!()<_)K OF DAYS. 

matic-hucd bedquilt ; and at that Great Town 
Meeting- where we shall gather when time and 
eternity meet, may no figure more sinister than 
his be there to bid tis welcome. — Clarence 
Ueming : A Yankee Toivn Meeting. [1882.] 

October 2. 

1780. — Major Tallmadge accompanies Major 
Andre to the foot of the scaffold at Tappan. 
Years after, he wrote : " I became so deeply 
attached to Major Andre that I can remember 
no instance when my affections were so fully 
absorbed in any man. When I saw him swing- 
ing under the gibbet, it seemed for a time as if 
I could not support it. All the spectators 
seemed to be overwhelmed by the affecting 
spectacle, and the eyes of many were suffused 
in tears." 

OGtob(^r 3. 

In another portion of the book* reference 
has been made to the famous Agreement of 
1789, and to Lyman Beecher's "Six Sermons" 
delivered here and subsequently in Boston. 
These are conspicuous landmarks in American 
Temperance Reform. What more fitting way 
to commemorate them than by casting a vote 
for No- License at the Town Election. 



See pages 70, 82. 



OCTOBER. l6l 

" The commerce, therefore, in ardent spirits 
which produces no good, and produces a certain 
and immense amount of evil, must be regarded 
as an unlawful commerce, and ought, upon 
every principle of humanity and patriotism and 
conscience and religion, to be abandoned and 
proscribed." — Lyman Beecher : Six Sermons 
on Iiitcjiipcrauce. 

October 4. 

1858. — The town authorized the construction 
of Center Park at private expense. This park 
originated in the thought of Miss Mary Pierce, 
who gave money for grading and fencing it. 

The East and West parks were graded and 
planted v/ith trees in the summer of 1836. Dr. 
John Wolcott was the moving spirit in this im- 
provement, and Henry L. Goodwin and D. C. 
Bulkley had much to do with the planting and 
care of the trees. About the time the Center 
Park was put in order, a young college grad- 
uate, George M. Woodruff by name, had inore 
trees set out in the east end of East Park. 

Ootober 5. 

1818. — By the ratification of the new Consti- 
tution, the Congregational churches of the 
state of Connecticut are disestablished. 

Lyman Beecher's comment is not only inter- 
esting historically, but is especially pertinent 



l62 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

in these days of ecclesiastical unrest in Old 
England : 

" It was as dark a day as I ever saw. The 
odium thrown upon the ministry was incon- 
ceivable. The injury done to the cause of 
Christ, as we then supposed, was irreparable. 
For several days I suffered what no tongue can 
tell for the best thing that ever happened to the State 
of Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from 
dependence on State support. It threw them 
wholly on their own resources and on God." 

1880. — Origen Storrs Seymour and Lucy M. 
Woodruff, his wife, celebrate their golden wed- 
ding. 

" These two are wedded fifty years, 
For fifty years two hearts are one, 
And in this mild October sun 
There is no sorrow in their tears." 

— Gideon H. Hollister. 

October 6. 

The golden wedding of Judge and Mrs. Sey- 
mour, bringing together many distinguished 
people from far and near, was the most nota- 
ble social event in the history of Litchfield. 

Not far from this time, three couples closely 
connected celebrated their golden weddings. 
On one of these occasions, there sat down at 
the same table. Judge and Mrs. vSeymour, Mr. 
and Mrs. George C. AVoodruff, and Mr. and 
Mrs. James B. Parsons. 




m^ ij ■ 




THE OLD MEETING HOUSE. 



OCTOBER. 163 

October 7. 

That fellow 's so contrary that he hates to do 
the very thing he wants to, if anybody else 
wants him to do it. If there was any way of 
voting that would spite both parties and please 
nobody, he'd take that. The only way to get 
that fellow to heaven would be to set out to 
drive him to hell ; then he'd turn and run up 
the narrow way full chisel. — Sheriff Deiniie on 
Zcph Higgitis — Pogaiiiic People. 

October 8. 

In his Yankee Toiu/i Meefi/ig, Clarence Dem- 
ing tells of the attempt of a vociferous lawyer 
to browbeat the Moderator : '* Mr. Moderator, 
for three years you have decided this question 
the other way." " All right," was the response, 
"if I have decided the question for three years 
wrong the other wa}', all the more reason why 
I should decide it right now." 

October 9. 

The old Litchfield "meeting-house " stood in 
the middle of the " Green " very nearly at the 
intersection of the two main streets of the town. 
There it stood, solitary, solemn, and lonely. 
There was not a single line or fixture in it sug- 
gesting taste or beauty ; but that which the 
architect had neglected, the worshipers sup- 
plied. The hearts of thousands of men and 
01* 



164 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

women who had worshiped there from child- 
hood to old age had thrown the color of the 
deepest feelings upon the gaunt old church, and 
no doubt in their eyes the old wooden meeting- 
house looked more beautiful than the Parthe- 
non to the Greeks. 

The building was square, with two stories of 
windows and a high steep roof on which the 
snow had hard work to lie in winter. The 
windows were large, with panes of glass six by 
eight in size, full of warts and wrinkles, through 
which external objects were seen by our young- 
eyes in the most grotesque distortion. — Henry 
Ward Beecher : Goiin^ to Mcetitio;. 



October 10. 

The glory of our meeting-house was the 
singers' seat, that empyrean of those who re- 
joiced in the mysterious art of fa-sol-la-ing. 
There they sat in the gallery that lined three 
sides of the house, treble, cotmter, tenor, and 
bass, each with its appropriate leader and sup- 
porters. There were generally seated the 
bloom of our young people, sparkling, modest, 
blushing girls on one side, with their ribbons 
and finery, making the place as blooming and 
li^^ely as a flower garden ; and fiery, forward, 
confident young men on the other. — Harriet 
Beecher Stowe. 



OCTOBER. 165 

October II. 

I remember the wonder with which I used to 
look from side to side when treble, tenor, 
counter, and bass were roaring and foaming, 
and it verily seemed to me as if the Psalm were 
going to pieces among the breakers ; and the 
delighted astonishment with which I found that 
each particular verse did emerge whole and 
uninjured from the storm. — Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, 

October 12. 

But even Sunday cannot hold out forever, 
and meetings have to let out sometime ! vSo 
at length a universal stir and bustle announced 
that it was time to go. Up we bolted ! Down 
we sat as quick as if a million pins were stick- 
ing in our feet ! The right leg was asleep ! 
Limping forth into the open air, relief came to 
our heart. The being out of doors had always 
an inexpressible charm, and never so much as 
on Sunday. Away went the wagons ! Away 
went the people ! The whole Green swarmed 
with folks. The lonof villao-e streets were full 
of company. In ten minutes all were gone, 
and the street was given up again to the birds. 
— Henry Ward Beecher: Going to Meeting. 

Octobt^r 13. 

When the day Avas done and the candles 
were lighted, and the supper was out of the 



l66 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

way, we all gathered about the great kitchxiii 
fire; and soon after George or Henry had to go 
down for apples. Generally it was Henry. A 
boy's hat is a universal instrument. It is a bat 
to smack butterflies with, a basket for stones 
to pelt frogs withal, a measure to bring tip 
apples in. And a big-headed boy's old felt hat 
w^as not stingy in its qualities; and when its 
store ended, the errand would ahvays be re- 
peated. To eat six, eight, and twelve apples 
in an evening was no great feat for a growing 
young lad, whose stomach was no more in 
danger of dyspepsia than the neighborhood 
mill, through whose body passed thousands of 
bushels of corn, leaving it no fatter at the end 
of the year than at the beginning. Cloyed 
with apples? To eat an apple is to want to 
eat another. — Henry Ward Beecher: Fn/iis^ 
FUnucrs^ and Fanjiiiig, 

Oetobi^r 14. 

Rev. Dan. Huntington, who was ordained 
Pastor of the Congregational Church in Octo- 
ber, 1798, wrote the following well-known clo 
scription of the Litchfield of his day: 

"A delightful village on a fruitful hill, richly 
endowed with its schools, both professional 
and scientific, and their accomplished teachers; 
with venerable Governors and Judges; with its 
learned lawyers and Senators, and Representa- 



OCTOBER. 167 

lives, both in National and State Departments; 
Litchfield was now in its glory." 



Oetob(^r 15. 

1724. — A Town Meeting orders a " Memo- 
rial of the distressed state of the Inhabitants 
of the Town of Litchfield, which we humbly 
lay before the Honorable General Assembly 
now sitting in New Haven." ..." Many 
of our Inhabitants are drawn off, and the duties 
of Watching and Warding are become very 
hcav3\" 

0(:tob(^r 16. 

1820. — William Guy Peck born. He gradu- 
ated at West Point, was with Fremont in his 
exploring expeditions, and was a member 
successively of the faculties of West Point, 
University of Michigan, and Columbia College. 

October 17. 

1777. — Captain Moses vSe3'mour commands a 
Litchfield company at the surrender of Bur- 
goyne. A few days later he attended a dinner 
at which General Burgo^me was called upon 
for a toast. Every voice was for the moment 
hushed into the deepest attention, as he arose 
and gave — "America and Great Britain against 
the world." — Kilbourue s History. 



1 68 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

Oetob(^r i8. 

1816. — "An Association of Young Men desire 
the First Ecclesiastical Society to accept a 
Stove and Pipe for their meeting-hoiise."* 

Fire ? Fire ? A fire in the house o' God ? 
I never heard on't. I never heard o' hevin fire 
in a meetin'-hoiise. — Zcph Higgins in Pogaiiuc 
People. 

October 19. 

1864. — The battle of Cedar Creek. At sun- 
rise, all unexpectedly, Early's troops swooped 
down upon the federal lines, and the northern 
soldiers, after vain resistance, fled pell-mell 
through the valley. Then Sheridan rode from 
Winchester, and defeat is turned to victory. 
In the language of Pat Burmingham that 
night, — "We're back again at the old camp 
and the Johnnies are whipped all to pieces." 

In proportion to the number of troops en- 
gaged, the Second Connecticut lost more 
heavily than in any other battle, not excepting 
Cold Harbor. 

October 20. 

Judge Reeve was the first eminent lawyer in 
this country who dared to arraign the common 
law of England for its severity and refined cru- 
elty in cutting off the natural rights of married 
women, and placing their property as well as 



* See November 20. 




JAMES GOULD. 



OCTOBER, 109 

their persons at the nierc}^ of their husbands, 
who might squander it or hoard it up, at their 
pleasure. . . . All the mitigating- changes 
in our jurisprudence which have been made to 
redeem helpless woman from the barbarities 
of her legalized tyrant may fairly be traced to 
the author of the first American treatise on 
TJic Domcsiic Relations. — Hollister s Coiiuccticut. 

Oetober 21. 

"Gould's Pleading" is one of the most con- 
densed and critical pieces of composition to be 
found in our language, and is of an original 
character. He had at first contemplated a more 
extended treatise, but while he was preparing 
materials for it, the announcement of Chitty's 
work on the same title induced him to change 
his plan. As it was presented to the public, 
'^ Gould's Pleading " is, therefore, only a sum- 
mary of the oris:^inal desio-n ; but for clearness 
and logical precision it is surpassed, if at all, 
only by the Commentaries on the laws of Eng- 
land. — Gideon H. Hollister : Baiiqiict to Chief 
Justice Seymour. 

October 22. 

Judge Gould carried to the bar the same 
classical finish which appears in his Avritings. It 
would have been impossible for him to speak 
an ungrammatical ^;entence, use an inelegant 



lyo LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

expression, or make an awkward gesture. His 
arg-uments were expressed in the most brief 
forms in which a speaker can convey his 
thoughts to his hearers. He seldom spoke 
longer than half an hour, and in the most im- 
portant and complex cases never exceeded an 
hour. He could shoot a quiver full of shafts 
within the circle of the target with such cer- 
tainty and force that they could all be found 
and counted when the contest was over. 

As a judge, his opinions are unsurpassed by 
any which appear in our reports for clearness 
and that happy moulding of thought so pecu- 
liar to him at the bar and in social conversa- 
tion. — Gideon H. Hollister : Banquet to Chief 
Justice Seyuiour. 

October 23. 

The schoolhouse was in the street near the 
N W. corner of my father's Home Lot, and 
was about twenty rods from home. The street 
was nine or ten rods wide and the hillocks were 
covered with whortleberry bushes, which were 
tall enough to hide a young man or boy from 
observation. It was an excellent place for 
truants and used for that purpose by many of 
the larger Boys of the vSchool. When I had 
attained the age of six or seven years, I was 
told that it was time for me to go to School. I 
was accordingly dressed in my Sunday habit, 
and sent out, whip in hand, on a Monday morn- 



OCTOBER. 171 

ing-. I was the smallest and most tender boy 
who appeared, with a pale face and white hair. 
— Oliver Wolcott, Jr. 

October 24. 

The Master was a stout, rough man, and I 
think it was probable he was a foreigner. 
When I was called before him, he, judging from 
appearance, took me between his knees and 
with a ferule and Dil worth's vSpelling Book in 
his hands offered to instruct me in spelling 
words of several syllables. My astonishment 
and indignation exceeded all bounds. I con- 
sidered it as the greatest possible indignity. I 
had no conception that a Schoolinaster^ whom I 
deemed a great personage, could be so ignorant 
as not to know that I could read in the Testa- 
ment. I remained mute and stifled my sobs as 
well as I was able. The Master supposed he 
had put me too far forward, and turned me 
back to words of one syllable. My wrath in- 
creased and I continued silent. He tried me in 
the Alphabet ; and as I remained silent he told 
me that I came to learn to read, and that I 
must speak the words after him or he would 
whip me. He actually struck me, supposing 
me to be obstinately mute ; my sobs nearly 
broke my heart, and I was ordered to my seat. 
Some of the boys tried to console me, and oth- 
ers laughed. I left the school with the most 



172 1,1 ri:HKlELI) llOOlv OF I)A\S. 

decided disj^'iist, resolved never to enter it 
again. — Oliver Wolcoti', jr. 

October 25. 

The Sheldon House on North vStreet is one 
of the two or three houses of the i8th century 
which has been in the unbroken possession of 
the family of the builder. The present occu- 
pant of the house is Mrs. N. Rochester Child. 
Should any of her former schoolmates at Miss 
Pierce's read these lines, they surely will re- 
member her by her earlier name, Elizabeth 
Prince. 

This house is a veritable liistorical museum, 
full of rare and valuable memorials of earlier 
days ; and aside from its contents, is interesting 
in itself. Dr. vSheldon built it in 1785. He 
lived to be ninety years old ; while his daugh- 
ter Lucy, who was born in the house, lived 
there for nearly one hundred and one years. 

When Dr. vSheldon was seventy-five years 
old, he journeyed in company with his daughter 
and Miss Mary Pierce to Niagara. The letter 
of Lucy Sheldon (Mrs. Beach as we now re- 
m.ember her) describing the journey by stage 
and canal in 1826, the 3^ear after tlie Erie Canal 
was opened, is a most entertaining one. At its 
close, she expresses the hope that the journey 
may be the means of prolonging her father's 
life. Her wish was realized. 




DANIEL SHELDON, M. D. 



OCTOBER. 173 

0(;tober 26. 

Dear old Dr. Sheldon ! We began to get well 
as soon as he came into the house ; or if the evil 
spirit delayed a little, " Cream-o'-tarter with 
water poured upon it and sweetened," finished 
the work. He had learned long before the days 
of homeopathy, that a doctor's chief business is 
to keep parents from giving their children medi- 
cine, so that nature may have a fair chance at 
the disease without having its attention divided 
or diverted. — Henry Ward Beecher: Litchfield 
Revisited. 



Oc:tob(^r 27. 

Another physician still earlier than Dr. 
Sheldon should be remembered here. We 
refer to Dr. Reuben Smith from whose corre- 
spondence with Oliver Wolcott during the 
Revolution we have quoted. The house he 
built in 1770 is now the home of Mrs. Henry 
R. Coit. 

How one name calls up another ! All this 
time, we have forgotton to mention Parson 
Collins, the first minister of the town. He had 
a rather stormy time with his parishioners for 
thirty years, and then left the pulpit for the 
practice of medicine, continuing to reside in 
Litchfield until his death fourteen years later. 



174 LITCHFIELD BOOK OB^ DAYS. 

Octob(?r 28. 

The home of Mrs. Henry R. Coit is one of 
the most noted of the historic houses. We 
have just spoken of its builder. Dr. Smith 
sold the house to Asa Bacon, the lawyer who 
came here from Canterbury with seventeen 
law students whom he transferred to the Litch- 
field Law School. 

David R. Boardman,in speaking of Asa Bacon, 
has said: " He had a fine appearance, being tall, 
well proportioned, and usually richly dressed. 
The first time I saw him before the jury, his 
head was well cased in powder and pomatum, 
and a long queue was dangling at his back ; 
but he soon laid aside this conformity to old- 
time fashions, though he was the last member 
at the bar to do so. He Avould sometimes in- 
terlude his arguments with specimens of droll- 
ery and flashes of wit, and the expectation that 
these would be put forth, secured a very strict 
attention from all his hearers." 

In later years the house became the home of 
Mr. Henry R. Coit, who, through his connec- 
tion with the Bank and the Shepaug Railroad, 
and in other ways, was for many years closely 
identified with all that pertained to the welfare 
of modern Litchfield. 



OCTOBER. 175 

Oetob(^r 29. 

One of Mr. Starr's most trusted employes 
was a man whom he called "Uncle Bill." In 
Farm EcJwcs^ the following anecdote is told of 
him, which makes one think that the "bonnie 
brier bush " grows here as well as in Drum- 
tochty: 

" At one time during a severe illness which 
he felt might end in speedy death, he expressed 
a wish to communicate something to me alone, 
and in confidence. He summarily ordered the 
other occupants of his room to leave it, and I 
stood at his bedside, fully prepared for some 
important revelation — perhaps a death-bed con- 
fession of something as yet a secret to all but 
God and himself. 

"Could it be some dark deed in his past life, 
now weighing more heavily than ever on his 
conscience in view of the near approach of 
death, and that he longed to unburden himself 
of it to one from whom he thought he might 
receive comforting advice ? Judge of my sur- 
prise and relief, when I found that what he 
had to communicate was the confession of his 
neglect to inform me, at the time of its occur- 
ence some year or two previous, that one in my 
employ had left open for a night a door which 
ought to have been locked. He found it open 
early the next morning, and had ever since felt 
he had neglected his duty in not at once re- 



176 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS, 

porting the fact to me. There was a tone of 
sadness in his voice which told as plainly as 
did his words, his regret at this failure of duty. 
It was no light matter to him that I had placed 
confidence in him, and that he had seemingly 
abused it. 

" I shall never forget the impression this 
made upon me, nor I hope the lesson it taught 
me. I exclaimed: 'Happy Uncle Bill, to be 
thus prepared. Is this all that troubles you ? ' 

" Here was a soul about to enter eternity as 
we supposed, and it had no greater burden rest- 
ing on it than this trifling matter. To tell of 
this open door, and then feel he was prepared 
for whatever might take place, proved a child- 
like faith and trust rarely to be met with. The 
eye of faith was evidently looking upon another 
' open door,' and so steadfastly as not to see 
any of the difficulties which distress those who 
do not take as literally as did he, the precious 
promise of the Precious Saviour: ' I am the 
door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be 
saved.' " 

October 30. 

The illustration on the opposite page shows 
one of the oldest houses on West Street, built 
by Eli vSmith in 1780. For the last thirty 
years it has been the residence of Mr. George 
Kenney. 



OCTOBER. 177 

The store next door has given way to the 
Fire Department Building. For many years 
it was a landmark of the village. Seated on 
the steps, is Captain Alva Stone. 

0(:l:ob(^r 31. 

1789. — John M. Peck, born. He became an 
eminent Baptist clergyman, and was at one 
time the Whig candidate for Governor of 
Illinois. 

1850. — The Baptist Church of Bantam is 
orofanized. 



Kou(^mt><?r I. 

1776. — About this time, thirty-six picked 
men go, imder the command of Capt. Beebe, 
to the defense of Fort Washington. 

1825. — This has been a good day. Twenty- 
five have been added to the church. 
Harriet communed to-day for the first time. 
— Lyman Befxher : Letter to William Beecher. 

Mrs. Stowe, in her Life and Letters, does not 
speak of this service, but she does speak of the 
time "that I first believed myself to be a Chris- 
tian." It was at an earlier communion service 
in the suminer of the same year. 

In Po^:;amie People, she tells the story most 
beatitifully : 

" When she saw the white, simple table, and 
the shining cups and snowy bread of the Com- 
munion, she inly thought that the service could 
have nothing for her, — it would be all for those 
grown-up, initiated Christians. Nevertheless, 
when her father began to speak, she was drawn 
to him by a sort of pathetic earnestness in his 
voice. . . . 

" Dolly sat absorbed, her large blue eyes 
gathering tears as she listened, and when the 
Doctor said, 'Come, then, and trust your soul 

(178) 




FREDERICK WOLCOTT 



NOVEMBER. 1 79 

to this faithful Friend,' Dolly's little heart 
throbbed, ' I will.' And she did. For a mo- 
ment she was discouraged by the thought that 
she had not had any conviction of sin ; but, like 
a flash came the thought, Jesus could give her 
that as well as anything else, and that she 
could trust Him for the whole. And so her 
little earnest child-soul went out to the won- 
derful Friend. She sat through the sacramental 
service that followed, with swelling heart and 
tearful eyes, and walked home filled with a new 
joy. She went up to her father's study and fell 
into his arms, saying, ' Father, I have given 
myself to Jesus, and He has taken me.' " 

" The Doctor held her silently to his heart a 
moment, and his tears dropped on her head. 

" ' Is it so ? ' he said. ' Then has a new flower 
blossomed in the Kingdom this day.' " 

f/ou(^mber 2. 

1767. — Frederick Wolcott, born. He was a 
lifelong resident of the town, and more closely 
identified with its interests than his father or 
brother, whose time was so largely given to 
state and national affairs. 

Judge Church gives, in his Centennial Address^ 
the following expression of local sentiment : 
" I never pass by the venerable mansion of the 
Wolcott family in my daily walks about this 
village, without recalling the stately form and 



l8o LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

ever honorable deportment of Frederick Wol- 
cott" 

1768. — John Jacob, an Indian, was executed. 
Rev. Timothy Pitkin of Farmington came over 
to Litchfield, at the request of the criminal, to 
preach the execution sermon. His text was 
Numbers xxv: 16, — "And if he smite him with 
an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a 
murderer : the murderer shall surely be put to 
death." 

f/ou(^fT)ber 3. 

In Dwight C. Kilbourn's library (a veritable 
section of paradise to the bookworm) is a copy 
of the sermon just alluded to. It is the quaint- 
est specimen in the realm of homiletics that I 
have ever seen. As I remember its outline, it 
is as follows : ist and chiefly. Capital Punish- 
ment a Divine Ordinance ; 2d, A Message of 
Warning to the Audience ; 3d, Consolation to 
the Condemned Criminal. 

The execution sermon has not been unknown 
in Connecticut even in this century. David 
Dudley Field, in speaking of his boyhood mem- 
ories, said in an address given a few years ago: 
" A sermon was preached to a crowded house, 
and the prisoner was then taken, dressed in a 
shroud, to a hill near by, and in the presence 
of thousands of spectators was executed." 



NOVEMBER. l8l 

f/ou(^mber 4. 

1768.— Mary Biiel died. This is the inscrip- 
tion upon her tombstone in the West burying- 
gronnd : " Here lies the body of Mrs. Mary, 
wife of Dea. John Bnell,* Esq. She died Nov. 
4, 1768, aged 90 — having had 13 children, 10 1 
grandchildren, 247 great-grandchildren, and 49 
great-great-grandchildren ; total, 410. Three 
htindred and thirty-six survived her." 

f/ou(^n)ber 5. 

1745. — The first Episcopal society of Litch- 
field is organized at the house of Captain Jacob 
Griswold. 

It was about this time that Mary Davies came 
here, homesick with memories of Hereford- 
shire. AVhat a rough and shaggy look this 
Western country must have worn to her eyes, 
and what a topsy-turvy state of society existed 
when dissenting meeting-houses were estab- 
lished by law, and when there were scarce 
enough Church of England people in the col- 
ony to found a church ! Writing from under 
the shadow of Mount Tom, Mrs. Davies in- 
formed her friends in England that she was 



*The local historians spell the name with one " 1" ; 
on the tombstone it is spelled with two. The descend- 
ants of Deacon John and Mary, his wife, follow the 
method of Shakespeare, and spell the name, now one 
way, and now another. 



l82 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

" entirely alone, having- no society, and having 
nothing to associate with but Presbyterians 
and wolves." 

1799. — The Rev. Truman Marsh became rec- 
tor of St. Michael's church. His term of ser- 
vice — thirty years — is the longest in the his- 
tory of the parish. 

1878. — Charles B. Andrews received a plu- 
rality of the votes cast in the election for Gov- 
ernor, and was subsequently elected to that 
office by the Legislature. 

He came to Litchfield as a young lawyer in 
1863, having been called here from Kent by 
John H. Hubbard, about the time the latter 
was elected to Congress. The career of Judge 
Andrews is a striking illustration of the fact 
that even in a state where wealth and social 
prestige count for much, native ability and en- 
ergy will not be without recognition. Judge 
Andrews is the only citizen in the history of 
Connecticut who has held the two highest 
offices in the gift of the State. 

1879. — Little Pond is frozen over. A few 
days later the thermometer rose to 80° and re- 
mained at that point for several days. — Leonard 
Stone s Diary. 

|\[ou(^mber 6. 

Parson Marsh, as he was called, lived for 
many years in the house now owned by C. M. 




CHARLES B. ANDREWS. 



NOVEMBER. 183 

Ganung. There he kept school; one day, after 
ordering- the boys to pile up some wood for the 
schoolroom fire, he was surprised to find that 
they had barricaded the door so that he could 
not get out. 

He had a great dread of fire, and had a pane 
of glass inserted in the panel of his bedroom 
door so that he could look now and then, at 
night, and watch the fire in the sitting-room. 

f/oi/emb(^r 7. 

Frederick Wolcott might have been Gov- 
ernor of the State, had he so desired. He twice 
declined the nomination on the ground that his 
health was not firm. In both instances, the 
candidate who took his place was successful. 

Aside from Judge Reeve, no man who has 
lived here has called forth heartier tributes of 
affection and respect than Frederick Wolcott. 
Jonathan Brace has said of him : " If there 
was a man in this village whom the aged re- 
spected, and to whom the young looked up 
with reverence, that man was Frederick Wol- 
cott." 

f/ouember 8. 

vSoon after the second Oliver AVolcott had re- 
tired from the governorship, he became in- 
volved in a lawsuit, growing out of his business 
interests in Wolcottville. The case came to 



184 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

trial here, Judge Daggett presiding. The judge 
was an ardent Federalist, and, as Litchfield was 
a famous stronghold of Federalism, the jury 
was largely opposed, politically, to Wolcott. 

It was at this trial that Judge Gould made 
his last appearance as counsel. He conducted 
the case against Wolcott, and carried the jury 
with him. Judge Seymour, then a young man, 
attended the trial, and felt that Judge Daggett's 
conduct of the case was partisan. On review- 
ing the matter, however, in later years, he not 
only modified, but reversed his opinion. 

|\[ouemb(^r 9. 

There have been some remarkable instances 
of tenure of office in Litchfield. From 1751 to 
1836, there were but two county clerks: Isaac 
Baldwin, serving forty-two years ; Frederick 
Wolcott, forty-three years. With these men, 
we must put the first Ebenezer Marsh, who 
was elected to the Legislature in the spring of 
174T, and was re-elected semi-annually, with 
scarcely a break, until 1771. 

The house he built in 1759 is the second old- 
est in the town, and is the well-known land- 
mark on the southeast corner of South and 
East streets. 

\io\jef[\her 10. 

vSince 1793 Litchfield has been represented in 
Washington by its own citizens for sixty-six 



NOVEMBER. 185 

years ; in the Senate, by Uriah Tracy for 
eleven 3^ears, and Truman Smith for five years; 
in the House, for fifty years ; Benjamin Tall- 
madge serving the longest term, sixteen years. 

f/ou(^mb(^r II. 

Is there any other street in the country that, 
in less than half a mile of its length, can equal 
South street in the number of its public men ? 
Here have lived three governors and five chief- 
justices of Connecticut, two judges of the fed- 
eral courts, two United States senators, six 
members of Congress. Add to this number 
the founder of the first law school in America, 
the compiler of the first law reports in the 
United States, and a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence. 

fiouember 12. 

1820. — A terrible storm of snow; it is ten 
inches deep, — and not a little remarkable for 
the earliness of the season. — George V. Cutler s 
Journal. 

f/ouemb(^r 13. 

Roxana Beecher, in a letter of November, 
1814, says : 

" I write sitting upon my feet, with my paper 
upon the seat of a chair, while Henry is hang- 
ing round my neck, and Harriet is begging me 
to please make her a baby." 



l86 LITCHB^IELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

f/o\/e(T)ber 14. 

1747. — Elijah Wadsworth was born in Hart- 
ford, He came to Litchfield before the Revo- 
lution and was a citizen here until 1802. He 
was a captain in Sheldon's regiment of Dra- 
goons. In 1802 he became one of the pioneers 
of the Western Reserve, and, as brigadier-gen- 
eral, co-operated with General Harrison in the 
defense of the Northwest in the War of 181 2. 

1797. — The second Episcopal society of Litch- 
field was organized. This is now known as St. 
Paul's church, Bantam. 

The rector of this church is the Rev. Hiram 
Stone, senior pastor of the town, having served 
this parish for nearly twenty-five 3^ears. His 
later ministry has been in the town where his 
boyhood was passed ; his earlier ministry was 
in Kansas in the heroic days before the war. 
He founded the first Protestant Episcopal 
church in the territory, and was army chap- 
lain for sixteen years. 

|\foue/T)b(^r 15. 

1859. — A prisoner in the Charlestown (Vir- 
ginia) jail, writes a letter to his old teacher, the 
Rev. H. L. Vaill of Litchfield : 

" Your assurance of the earnest sympathy of 
friends in my native land is very grateful to 
my feelings. . . . 

" I send through you my best wishes to Mrs. 



NOVEMBER. 187 

[Morris] Woodruff and her son, George. May 
the God of the poor and the oppressed be the 
God and vSavionr of you all. 

" Farewell, till we meet again. 
" Your friend in truth, 

" John Brown."* 

Connecticut has sent out many a school-mas- 
ter to the other thirty vStates, but never before 
so grand a teacher as that Litchfield-born 
schoolmaster at Harper's Ferry, writing, as it 
were, upon the Natural Bridge, in the face of 
nations, his simple cop}^, " Resistance to tyrants 
is obedience to God." — Wendell Phillips: 
Oration — Harper s Ferry. 

John Brown's birthplace is in this county, 
but not in this town. The old farmhouse where 
he first saw the light is in Torrington. Those 
bent on an historical pilgrimage will find some 
of the hardest hill-climbing that this region af- 
fords, and, at the goal of their journey, a dilap- 
idated house now tenanted by a colored family. 

|Vov/efnb(^r 16. 

1776.— The surrender of Fort Washington. 
Captain Beebe and his thirty-six Litchfield 
men were among the prisoners. Only six of 
his company survived the horrors of imprison- 
ment. 



* This letter is given at length in Sanborn's Life of 
John Brown. . - 



1 88 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS, 

f/ouemb(^r 17. 

1817. — Harriet Porter, Lyman Beecher's sec- 
ond wife, writes her first Litchfield letter to her 
sister : " Harriet and Henry are very desirous 
for me to send their love. Harriet just said to 
me, ' Because you have come and married my 
pa, when I am big enough I mean to go and 
marry your pa.' " 

\io\jefr\b(^r 18. 

In her Zi/e and Letters, Mrs. Stowe describes 
the home-coming of her father and step-mother 
as follows : " As father came into the room, 
our new mother followed him. She was very 
fair, with light-blue eyes and soft, auburn hair 
bound round with a black velvet bandeau, and 
to us she seemed very beautiful. 

" Never did step-mother make a prettier or 
sweeter impression. The morning following 
her arrival, we looked at her with awe. She 
seemed to us so fair, .so delicate, so elegant, 
that we were almost afraid to go near her.' 

flouember 19. 

1816. — George Thompson, born. He was a 
lifelong resident of the village, and though in 
private life, exerted no inconsiderable influence 
both upon the town and upon the Methodist 
Episcopal church, of which he was a leading 



NOVEMBER. 1 89 

member. As a citizen, he was deeply con- 
cerned in all that pertained to the welfare of 
the town ; as a Methodist, it is safe to say that 
few of his pastors were more thoroughly ac- 
quainted with American Methodism, or were 
more deeply in sympathy with its aims and 
achievements. 

f/ou(^mb(^r 20. 

It was a warm November Sabbath, in 1816, 
when everyone, on entering the meeting-house, 
saw that the much-debated stove had actually 
been set up in the middle aisle. " Good old 
Deacon Trowbridge shook his head as he felt 
the heat reflected from it, and gathered up the 
skirts of his great-coat as he passed up the 
broad aisle to the Deacons' Seat. Old Uncle 
Noah Stone, a wealthy farmer of the West End, 
who sat near, scowled and muttered at the ef- 
fects of the heat, but waited until noon to utter 
his maledictions over his nut-cakes and cheese 
at the intermission. There had, in fact, been 
no fire in the stove, the day being too warm. 
We were too much upon the broad grin to be 
very devotional, and smiled rather loudly at the 
funny things we saw. But when the editor of 
the village paper, Mr. Bunce, came in (who 
was a believer of stoves in churches), and, with 
a most satisfactory air, warmed his hands by 
the stove, keeping the skirts of his great-coat 



190 LITCHFIELD liOOK OF DAYS, 

carefully between his knees, we could stand it 
no longer, but dropj^ed invisible behind the 
breastwork. But the climax of the whole was 
when Mrs. Peck went out in the midst of the 
service ! It was, however, the means of recon- 
ciling the whole society ; for, after that first 
day, we heard no more opposition to the warm 
stove, in the meeting-house." — John P. Brace; 
Kilboiirne s History. 

|\[ouG/iib(^r 21. 

181 7. — Harriet is a very good girl. She has 
been to school all this summer, and has learned j 
to read very fluently. She has committed to 
memory twenty-seven hymns and two long 
chapters of the Bible. She has a remarkably 
retentive memory, and will make a good 
scholar. She says she has got a new mother 
and loves her very much, and means to be a 
very good child. — Letter of CatJieriiie Beeeher. 

|\fouember 22. 

Harriet Beecher was not yet twelve years old 
when, under the stimulating teaching of Mr, 
John P. Brace, she prepared for the public her 
first literary effort, an essay under this formida- 
ble title : '• Can the Immortality of the soul be 
proved in the Light of Nature ? " 

" I remember," says Mrs. Stowe, in her biog- 
raphy, " the scene at tliat exhibition. 
The hall was crowded with the literati of Litch- 



NOVEMBER. 191 

field. Before them all our compositions were 
read aloud. I noticed that father who was sit- 
ting on high by Mr. Brace, brightened and 
looked interested, and at the close I heard him 
say, ' Who wrote that composition ? ' ' Your 
daughter, sir,' was the answer. It was the 
proudest moment of my life." 

|\fou(^mber 23. 

1786. — Oliver Wolcott draws up a legal doc- 
ument, emancipating " my negro servant man, 
Caesar." 

As late as 1800, there were seven slaves in 
Litchfield, but we are glad to learn from 
Kilbourne in 1859, that " the ' institution ' is now 
extinct among us, though some who were born 
slaves are still living here." 

In this connection it is interesting to note 
that Harriet Beecher Stowe's first abhorrence 
of slavery dates not from Cincinnati, but from 
Litchfield. Her aunt, Mrs. Mary Hubbard, 
who made her home in the Beecher household, 
and who lies buried in the East cemetery, had 
lived for a time in the West Indies. Mrs. 
Stowe sa3^s of her : " What she saw and heard 
of slavery filled her with constant horror and 
loathing. She has said that she has often sat 
by her window in the tropical night, when all 
was still, and wished the island might sink in 
the ocean with all its sin and misery, and that 
she might sink with it." 



192 I.ITCHFIKI.I) I'.OOK OF DAYS. 

|\fouember 24. 

In the annals of human oratory, no instance 
of triumphant mastery of a hostile audience 
can eclipse Henry Ward Beecher's address 
before the vast throng- at Liverpool. He went 
to that meeting uncertain whether he would 
come forth alive. There he plead for the slave 
and for the cause of the North in the crisis of 
the Civil War. It makes one proud of Amer- 
ican citizenship to read that masterly speech. 

Here is his reference to a Litchfield colored 
man copied in his biography from a Liverpool 
paper of the day : 

" When I was twelve years old my father 
hired Charles Smith, a man as black as lamp- 
black, to work on his farm. I slept with him 
in the same room. [' Oh, oh ' !j Ah ! that don't 
suit you. [Uproar.] Now, you see, the vSouth 
comes out. [Loud laughter.] I ate with him 
at the same table ; I sang with him out of the 
same hymn book ['Good'] ; I cried when he 
prayed over me at night ; and if I had serious 
impressions of religion early in life, they were 
due to the fidelity and example of that poor 
humble farm laborer, black Charles vSmith." 
[Tremendous uproar and cheers.] 

fiov/emb(^r 25. 

There is no living in this world and doing 
right, if you cannot meet public opinion and 



NOVEMBER. I93 

resist it, when arrayed on the side of evil. — 
LvMAN Beecher. 

fiou(^/T)ber 26. 

181 8. — We have had a pleasant Thanksgiv- 
ing-, a good dinner, and, they say, a good 
sermon. It would have added to our happi- 
ness to have had you and William sit down 
with us. We had presents piled in upon us 
yesterday at a great rate. Mr. Henry Wads- 
worth sent 6 lbs. butter, 6 lbs. lard, 2 lbs. 
hyson tea, 5 doz. eggs, 8 lbs. sugar, a large pig, 
a large turkey, and four cheeses. The gov- 
ernor sent a turkey ;* Mrs. Thompson, do. ; 
and, to cap all, Mr. Rogers sent us a turkey. — • 
Lyman Beecher ; Letter to Edward Beecher. 

f/ouemb(^r 27. 

1864.— The Rev. William Stevens Perry 
becomes rector of St. Michael's church. He 
remained here five 3xars. vSubsequenth^, he 
was rector in Geneva, New York, president of 
Hobart College, and bishop of the diocese of 
Iowa. 

Dr. Storrs O. Se5"mour has contributed to 
the Book of Days the following interesting 
sketch : 



* It is to be hoped that the turkey was an extra good 
one, for it was only a few weeks previous that the gov- 
ernor and his party had carried through their programme 
of Disestabhshment. 



194 T.rrciiFiKLi:) rook (^f days. 

" Bishop Perry became rector of vSt. Michaers 
church in this village in 1864. At that time he 
was thirty-two years old, and just entering 
with great vigor and freshness upon his his- 
torical work for which he afterwards became 
distinguished. He had even then a large col- 
lection of valuable pamphlets, and his familiar- 
ity with their contents was remarkable. He 
could lay his hand in a moment upon any one 
of these, and he knew exactly what informa- 
tion he could gather from it. While in Litch- 
field, by way of recreation, he did a good deal 
of very beautiful illuminating work with pen 
and brush. Bishop Perry was a very ready 
writer. He was fond of preaching courses of 
sermons, some of these which were afterwards 
published were written while he was in Litch- 
field. A sermon which he preached on 
Thanksgiving Day, 1866, was afterwards 
printed under the title, ' Thankfulness for our 
Past, our Present, and our Future.' 

" In his parochial work Bishop Perry, or Mr. 
Perry as he then was, was very happy. He 
and his wife used to visit a good deal, and the 
little pony and basket wagon were a very 
familiar sight on our roads. They were very 
fond of Litchfield, coming here frequently to 
vSpend their vacations, and Bishop Peny often 
spoke of the time when he could build a house 
here, and have it for a summer home and for 
his old aee. As he was a voluminous writer, a 



NOVEMBER. I95 

mere recital of the titles of his books wo^^ld 
occupy more space than this little sketch." 

1898. — A blinding snow storm rag-ed through- 
out the day. At times it was impossible to see 
across the street, the houses on the further side 
being blotted out as effectively as by a dense 
fog-. This proved the heaviest November 
snow storm on record. 

|\foue(T)ber 28. 

1 82 1. — George Y. Cutler, a law student from 
Watertown, makes the following entry in his 
journal : 

'*On horseback to Litchfield. It was no kill- 
ing thing — much more would it be to hang — 
the moon was bright ; the snow, full of reflec- 
tion ; I, full of breakfast ; Nate, of fire ; while 
the cocks crowed about us for musick, and the 
stars,' one after another, shot this way and that 
about the heavens, as if making a display of 
fireworks for our amusement. I found George 
Gibbs up, though I little expected it when 
I turned the corner to take a look at his win- 
dow. I had little thought of seeing a light at 
that time of night. 

"'Well,' said I, T//,' indeed, ' Marcelli/s eris' I 

"I ran up-stairs, opened the door an inch, 
and inquired if Mr. Gibbs lived there. Then 
we laughed ourselves to death and disturbed 
our neighbors. Mr. Chambers, in the back 



196 l.ITCTIFIl'.l.l) I'.OOK Oi- DAYS. 

room, inc|uircd wlio llic devil had come ; and, 
bcino- told, said, ' I thoii<'iit it was he' " 



|Vow(^(T)ber 29, 

182T. — 'My g'oing- in the nig-ht cost old [Grove] 
Catlin a vast deal of wonder, and I chose to 
leave him in that situation. AVhen I turned 
my face howeward, I felt the inconvenience of 
three pairs of pantaloons, two of stocking-s, 
shirts, and two great-coats. — George Y. Cutler s 
Journal. 

|Vouemb(?r 30. 

I recall, from boyhood, a striking- proof of 
the elasticity of black ice. In one of the towns 
of Northwestern Connecticut, between two 
lakes, stretches a long- reach of level bog-land, 
which a winter's thaw often covers with water. 
Years ago, one of these periodical overflows 
covered the bogs, and a sharp snap of cold 
weather left a level surface of black ice several 
inches thick. Then the water receded, leaving 
the ice hung on the bogs, but bent between 
them into a series of long depressions like the 
troughs of Atlantic waves. The sensation of 
skating over these long billows of ice was pe- 
culiarly novel, and for days the lads of the near 
village indulged in it with irrepressible delight. 
— Clarence Deming : On Black Ice. 




GEORGE C. WOODRUFF. 



1805. — George C. Woodruff, born. 

He served for several terms in the Legisla- 
ture, and represented this District in the 37th 
Congress. His History of Litchfield^ published 
in 1845, and his Centennial Address, July 4, 1876, 
are of great value. 

No such enumeration, however, as we have 
just made, can convey to the reader any true 
view of his chief service to his native town. 
Here he lived for nearly eighty years. Judge 
Andrews, in speaking of him, has used an old. 
but apt comparison, " He was a moral town 
clock ; men set their conduct by him." 

The following portrait of George C. Wood- 
ruff is sketched by Judge Andrews : 

" Erect in figure, and singularly robust; al- 
ways of the firmest health ; always at work and 
never seemingly fatigued ; nothing in nature 
so typified him as an oak which has withstood 
every vicissitude of storm for a century of 
time." — Address before the Litchfield Bar. 

(197) 



198 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

Deee(T)ber 3. 

That all classes of people should implicitly 
trust Mr. [George C.J Woodruff was natural. 
That confidence was begotten of an honesty, 
a faithfulness, a zeal that was unswerving. No 
better proof of this could exist than at some 
time he was not only the counsel for every town 
in Litchfield county, but of many of the towns 
of adjoining counties. — Morris W. Seymour: 
Connecticut Laiv Reports. 

De(:e(T|ber 4 

Early in life he married a sister* of the late 
Chief-Justice Seymour, and Judge Seymour 
married the only sister of Mr. Woodruff. Side 
b}^ side these gentlemen lived and practiced 
their profession, sometimes as associates, and 
again as opponents ; so zealously each contend- 
ing for the rights of his client, that jealousy it- 
self never harbored a suspicion that all honor- 
able means were not used to succeed. These 
conflicts were often close and exciting, and yet 
their friendship was never broken ; rather was 
their esteem increased as their days length- 
ened. — Morris W. Seymour : Connecticut Law 
Reports. 

DG(:emb(^r 5. 

vSoon after her arrival in Litchfield in 1817, 
Mrs. Harriet Porter Beecher summed up her 

* " She was the sunshine of Litchfield." 




THE METHODIST ElTSCOl'AL CHURCH 



DECEMBER. 



199 



impressions of the village as follows : " The 
beauty of the place is the wide streets, thickly 
planted on either hand with fine trees. It sur- 
passes in pleasantness anything I have seen 
except Boston Mall. The houses are white and 
neat, and there is no appearance of poverty. 
I think it must be one of the most beautiful 
summer towns in the world." 

Dec:e(T)b(^r 6. 

A town-meeting in December, 1772, passed a 
vote for "coloring the meeting-house and put- 
ting up electrical rods." 

Decenibi^r 7. 

Some time in December, 1753, liberty was 
voted to Isaac Hosford and others to erect a 
Sabbath Day House. 

Dee<^mber 8. 

1885. — The Methodist Episcopal church is 
dedicated by Bishop Harris of New York. 

Dece(nb(^r 9. 

A new parsonage had just been paid for, 
when, under the enthusiastic leadership of the 
Rev. Robert Wasson, it was voted to build a 
new church. The liberal gifts of the church 



200 LITCHFIELD HOOK OF DAYS. 

members were supplemented very substan- 
tially by Mr. Henry H. Benedict of New Haven, 
and by a number in this village of other com- 
munions, notably by Mr. Frederick Deming 
and his sisters, the Misses Deming. The bell 
is the gift of Mr. Starr. 

The pastors who have served this church for 
three years or longer since Mr. Wasson's time, 
are the following : Benjamin F. Kidder, Galen 
C. Spencer, George C. Boswell. 

D(^e(^(Tiber lo. 

During the building of the Methodist Epis- 
copal chiirch, I called, in company with Dr. W. 
W. Bowdish, upon Henry Ward Beecher. We 
were met by Mrs. Beecher, who received us in 
a most agreeable manner. After some conver- 
sation, she said that Henry, a day or two ago, 
on going upstairs, had remarked that he be- 
lieved he was growing old. In replying to 
this, she said : " I told him, ' Henry, you must 
never grow old. You shall remain 3^oung so 
long as you and I are together.' " 

Just as this sentence was uttered, Mr. Beecher 
made his appearance in the room, and gave 
Mr. Bowdish and myself a most cordial greet- 
ing. For a few minutes a very animated con- 
versation was carried on, and, as I had been in- 
troduced as coming from old Litchfield, natu- 
rally the conversation was turned in that direc- 



DECEMBER. 20I 

tion. Mr. Beecher at once referred to his father's 
ministry there and to his own boyhood, and said: 
" When I was about twelve years old, my father 
and I were walking out together, and as we 
went down West street, my father said, ' Henry, 
you see there is no Baptist church in Litchfield. 
They tried hard to get a footing here, but 
whenever they would make an appointment to 
hold a meeting, I found it out and I would just 
appoint a meeting in the neighborhood at the 
same time, and I whipped them every time ; 
but, Henry, these Methodists are different ; 
when they put their foot down, they stay ! ' " 

How greatly Mr. Beecher enjoyed telling 
this, was strongly marked on every lineament 
of his face. 

The moment had now come for me to tell 
Mr. Beecher the object of my call. " Mr. 
Beecher, I have undertaken to build a Metho- 
dist Episcopal church in Litchfield on West 
street. I would be greatly pleased to have 
your endorsement, and if you could help me 
financially, I would feel greatly indebted to 
you." 

Without a moment's hesitation, he said, in a 
most characteristic manner, " God forbid that 
a Methodist church should be built in Litch- 
field, and I not have a shingle on it I " 

Looking towards Mrs. Beecher, he said, 
" Mother, bring me my check-book. The latter 
was cheerfully produced, and the shingle pro- 



202 LITCHFIELD I'.OOK OF DAYS. 

vided for. — Robert Wasson : JVarratrc'e written 
for the Book of Days. 

Dec:emb(^r ii. 

There are times when even from the best of 
human lives is heard the cry, " Depa: t from 
me, O Lord ! for I am a sinful man." 

From St. Peter to Wordsworth comes the cry 
of failure on the part of the noblest, and the 

prayer, 

" The best of what we do and are, 
Just God, forgive." 

Lyman Beecher, in his address on Judge 
Reeve said : 

" In his last conversation with me, after as- 
senting; to my sug-gestion that the blood of 
Christ cleanseth from all sin, he said, 'Yes, it 
does ; it is sufficient ; but if there could be a 
case in which the sins of one who had obtained 
mercy should exceed the provisions of the 
Atonement' — he faltered with deep emotior? 
and wdien he could speak, he added, — 'I should 
expect that I am the man that had thus 
sinned.' " 

De^emb(^r 12. 

The loftiest flights of prayer are when the 
soul 
Moves heavenward, unconscious when it 
prays ; 
And they whose brows shine with the aureole, 
Have not seen, nor shall ever see its ra3^s. 
— Edward T. McLaughlin. 



DECEMBER. 203 

De(:ember 13. 

1823. — Tapping" Reeve died. 

O Judge Reeve, what a man he was ! AVhen 
I get to heaven and meet him there, what a 
shaking of hands there will be. — Lyman 
Beecher. 

December 14. 

1814. — Gideon H. Hollister was born in 
Washington. 

He came to Litchfield in early manhood, and 
is remembered here as a lawyer of marked 
ability. Throughout Connecticut, however, his 
fame rests chiefly on his literary work. His 
History of Coimccticiit we have already alluded 
to. He had hoped to complete it by adding a 
third volume, bringing the narrative down to 
the close of the Civil War. 

The acting copyright of his TJiomas a Bcckct 
was held by Edwin Booth, who took the role 
of the Cardinal a number of times. Of his 
poems, one, written during the Civil War, en- 
titled " Andersonville," had a widespread pop- 
ularity. Mrs. Hollister informs me that a 
woman in Pennsylvania, whose husband had 
perished under much the same circumstances 
as the poem depicts, wrote to Mr. Hollister, in- 
quiring how he knew about the incident of the 
soldier's having the photograph of his wife and 
children, and how he knew that the wife's 
name was Mary. 



204 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

" Kinley Hollow," a story of Litchfield 
county, was published after the author's death. 
Prof. Hoppin, in reviewing the book, has said : 
" There are wonderful fitting resemblances to 
places in that triangle of picturesque country 
between Litchfield, New Preston, and Wash- 
ington . . . but somehow . . . the 
sprite, Ariel, has cast a spell over it, and mixed 
all into a fairy picture that defies identifica- 
tion." 

Deeef^ber 15. 

Prof. J. M. Hoppin, in a letter to Mrs. Hollis- 
ter, wrote of Gideon H. Hollister : 

"He loved Litchfield and every rod of Con- 
necticut soil ; he loved his country's great men; 
but he loved, more than all, the great souls, the 
poets that have spoken, through all time, to all 
hearts, and helped them to think, and hope, 
and suffer." 

December 16. 

1851. — The present vSt. Michael's church is 
consecrated by Bishop Brownell. This is the 
third house of worship in the history of the par- 
ish. vSince Bishop Perry's time, 1864-69, Prof. 
C. vS. Henry, Rev. G. M. Wilkins, and Rev. L. 
P. Bissell have been rectors of the church. Dr. 
Storrs O. Seymour, the present rector, is serv- 
ing for a second term the parish with which 
the Seymour family has been identified for 
more than a hundred years. 




ST. MICHAEL S EPISCOl'AL CHURCH. 



DECEMBER, 205 

Our. illustration shows the church as it was 
before it lost its spire in a storm some years 
ago. When Bishop Williams heard of this dis- 
aster, , he exclaimed, " vSpires for the valleys, 
but towers for the hills ! " . 

Dec:ember 17. 

That is a pleasant picture that comes down 
to us from the i8th century, of John Davies, 
Jr., who did so much in the early days towards 
establishing the Episcopal church in this town. 
In 1794 he gave the ground and largely paid 
for the building of St. John's church, — since 
moved to Washington Green. " Aged and in- 
firm, he sat in the door of his house, and wit- 
nessed the raising of the building." 

History repeats itself, and John Davies, Jr., 
inevitably suggests his modern counterpart, 
the man to whom this book is dedicated. 
Owing to an accident, by which he has been 
confined to his house these many years, he has 
never been in the new Methodist church. Yet 
no one knows the edifice so thoroughly as he. 
Seated in his invalid's chair in his Meadow 
street home, he watched the plans to every last 
detail. Leonard vStone has built himself into 
the church. 

Dee(^fT)ber 18. 

1820. — A party at Mrs. Oliver Goodwin's. 
Was happy to find the Misses Wolcott there. 



2o6 LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

for I did not know who I was to meet ; they 
were the gems of the circle. 

Flora Catlin was sociable ; Miss Lewis, ani- 
mated. vSusan Leavitt (of Bethlehem) showed 
some spirit, which became her. Mrs. Gould 
was civil to me for having taken a relative of 
hers into my gig one day, and transporting her 
a mile or so. — George Y. Cutler s Journal. 

Under another date is the following entry : 
" A charming visit at Mary Ann Wolcott's. 
How beautiful ! It was uppermost in the 
abundance of my heart, and I could not help 
telling her my opinion. She is one the finest- 
looking women I ever knew." 

Dee(^mber 19. 

Some time in December, 1753, Captain Stod- 
dard and vSupply Strong were appointed a com 
mittee to " measure from the crotch of the 
Shepaug River to the northwest corner of the 
town, with Mr. Roger Sherman, County Sur- 
veyor." 

Dee(^nt>6r 20. 

The Wolcott Memorial volume contains this 
interesting glimpse of Revolutionary hardship 
and of the patriotic spirit with which it was 
met. The following words, though applied to 
Oliver Wolcott and his family, are equally illus- 
trative of the prevailing patriotism of the town 
and county : 



DECEMBER. 



207 



During the winter of 1779-80 famine abided 
its terrors to excessive cold. The deep snows 
in the mountain region of the State, and the 
explosion of the paper system, rendered it al- 
most impossible to procure the necessaries of 
life. . . . The resources of so zealous an 
advocate of the war were not withheld. Every 
dollar that could be spared from the mainte- 
nance of the family was expended in raising 
and supplying men ; every blanket, not in 
actual use, was sent to the army, and the sheets 
were torn into bandages or cut into lint by the 
hands of his wife and daughter." 

D(^eemb(^r 21. 

1784, — The Weekly Monitor and American Ad- 
vertiser made its appearance. This first of Litch- 
field newspapers was printed on coarse, blue 
paper. There were only three Litchfield ad- 
vertisements. Wm. Russell, Stocking Weaver, 
[from Norwich, England] announced that he 
was ready to make worsted, cotton and linen 
Jacket and Breeches Patterns, men's and 
women s Stockings, Gloves, and Mitts. Zal- 
mon Bedient, Barber, offers cash for human 
Hair; Cornelius Thayer, Brazier, also calls at- 
tention to his business. — Kilbournes History. 

Dee(^mb(^r 22. 

Some of the boys had great gifts at mischief 
and some of mirthfulness, and some had both. 
13 



2o8 LITCHFIELD 1U)()K OF ]:)AYS. 

together. The consequence wao, that just 
when we were most afraid to laugh, we saw the 
most comical things to laugh at. Temptations 
which we could have vanquished with a smile 
out in the free air, were irresistible in our little 
corner, where a laugh and a stinging slap were 
very apt to woo each other. So we would hold 
on and fill up ; and others would hold on and 
fill up, too; till by and by, the weakest would 
let go a mere whiffet of a laugh, and then down 
went all the precautions, and one went off, and 
another and another, touching off the others 
like a pack of fire-crackers. — Henry Ward 
Be EC HER : School Alcuiorics. 

D(^ee(nber 23. 

1731. — "Voted to build a schoolhouse in ye 
center of ye town on ye Meeting House Green." 

Horace Bushnell's description of the school- 
house he knew would be just as true as if ap- 
plied to the school of 1731 : 

" There were no complaints in those days of 
the want of ventilation ; for the large, open 
fireplace held a considerable fraction of a cord 
of wood, and the windows took in just enough 
air to supply the combustion. Besides, the big- 
ger lads were occasionally ventilated by being 
sent out to cut wood enough to keep the fire in 
action. The seats were made from the outer 
slabs of the sawmill, supported by slant legs 
driven into and at a proper distance through 



DECEMBER. 209 

auger holes, and planed smooth on the top by 
the rather tardy process of friction." — The Age 
of Homespun. 

The present attractive and commodious 
schoolhouse dates from 1888. Robert L. Zink 
is the principal. 

Dee(^mber 24. 

In his Age of Houiespun, Horace Bushnell, 
speaking in West Park at the Litchfield County 
Centennial, paid the following tribute to the 
District School-Teacher : " Oh, I remember 
(about the remotest thing I can remember) that 
low seat, too high, nevertheless, to allow the 
feet to touch the floor, and that friendly teacher 
who had the address to start the first feeling of 
enthusiasm and to awaken the first sense of 
power. He is living still, and whenever I think 
of him, he rises up to me in the far background 
cf memory, as bright as if he had worn the 
seven stars in his hair (I said he was living ; 
yes, he is here to-day, God bless him.)" 

D(^e(^fnt^er 25. 

Baltimore Town, 25*^ Dec, 1776. 
My Dear: 

You excuse yourself from writing to me on 
account of the difficulty and uncertainty of 
Conveyance. The Delivery of Letters is a 



2IO LITCHFIELD BOOK OF DAYS. 

matter of some uncertainty, but if they should 
fall into the Hands of the Foe, such as come 
from you and my Friends, I am sure I shall 
never be ashamed of, and as for mine they will 
find more trouble in reading them than En- 
tertainment, — Oliver Wolcott : Letter to Mrs. 
Wolcott. 

Dec:emb(^r 26. 

1722. — At a town-meeting- it was voted that 
the "town stock of Powder and lead should be 
procured by a rate raised upon the Rights." 

De(;e(T)b(^r 27. 

In the journal of Dotha Stone, subsequently 
Mrs. Cutler, a sister of Mrs. Dr. Sheldon, is the 
following entry in the year 1784 : 

" A number of us went to Mrs. Buel's to sup- 
per some winters ago, among whom was Patty 
Hopkins, my brother, and myself. As we sat 
at supper, it fell to Mr. Sam vSheldon to carve. 
He took up a rib which was taken out of the 
pork, and very unpolitely, though very inno- 
cently, said that was such a thing as woman 
was made of. 'Yea,' said Patty Hopkins, 'it 
was taken out of much such a creature ! ' 

Dee(^mber 28. 

Here is Mr. Barker's prediction, uttered one 
cold morning in the Litchfield jail, and re- 



DECEMBER. 211 

corded for us by Gideon H. Hollister in Kinky 
Hollow : 

" Ugh ! what a blast. In another hundred 
years — mark my words, Frank — in one hun- 
dred years from this date the only inhabitants 
on this hill will be white bears and Esqui- 
maux." 

Henry Ward Beecher's reminiscences of 
Litchfield winters is taken from the Beecher 
and Scoville biography : 

" You may think you know something about 
winter, but if you never spent a winter on old 
Litchfield Hill where I was brought up, you 
do not know much about it. . . . What a 
pother is made to ascertain the exact position 
of the North Pole, the very center and navel of 
cold ! Why, I could have pointed to the exact 
spot sixty years ago. It was on the northwest 
angle of my father's house. . . . 

" The noise of winter winds to our 3^oung 
ears was as terrible as the thunder of waves or 
as the noise of battle. All night long the cold, 
shelterless trees moaned. Their strong crying 
penetrated our sleep and shaped our dreams. 
The house creaked and strained, and at some 
more furious gust shuddered and trembled all 
over. Then the windows rattled, the cracks 
and crevices whistled each its own distinctive 
note, and the chimneys, like diapasons of an 
organ, had their deep and hollow rumble." 



212 LITCHFIELD 1]()()K OF DAYS. 

Dec:emb(^r 29. 

1776. — Gershom Gibbs, the first white male 
child born in Litchfield, died on board a British 
prison-ship. 

Dee(^mb(^r 30. 

1760. — The town votes to build a new meet- 
ing-hotise on the Green. 

All the older houses of w^orship have lon<j^ 
since disappeared, yet there are some venera- 
ble houses of prayer still left, and to pass them 
by is to receive a benediction. The Wolcott 
House is the mute but eloquent symbol of its 
builders' trust in God in the dark hours of the 
Revolution ; while across the street is the resi- 
dence of Tapping Reeve. The world recalls 
him as the founder of the first law school in 
America ; but Litchfield remembers him for his 
loftiness of character, for his length of service 
here, — more than fifty active years fruitful of 
human good, for his devotion to God. He is 
living still in this town for all who have eyes 
to see and ears to hear. It is said of him, by 
Lyman Beecher, that "he abounded in seasons 
of prayer as a part of the work and labor of his 
life. He gave himself to prayer. He prayed 
habitually for the influence of the Holy Spirit 
on the town to revive religion." 

As we look upon these venerable houses and 
think of what gives them their highest glory 



DECEMBER. 



273 



they commune with us and we with them ; 
they talk familiarly to us of b3^gone days, but 
there is no sadness in their tone. Out of their 
experience of a century and more, they speak 
to us a message for to-day and for the years to 
come. Their voice has the calm assurance of 
tears wiped away, of conflicts endured, of tri- 
umphs achieved. They speak to us in the 
same deep tone in which a Christian prophet 
of our own times has spoken : 

' ' Grow old along with me ! 
The best is yet to be, 
The last of life for which the first was made: 
Our times are in his hand 
Who saith, ' A whole I planned. 
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor 
be afraid! ' " 

December 31. 

How little of the history of the heart can 
ever be written, and if it were, could ever be 
reached by language ; and if it could, the world 
itself could not contain the books which should 
be written, and one generation would have no 
more than time to read the history of another, 
— Lyman Beecher. 



INDEX. 



Adams, Mrs. Mary, 132. 
Allen, Ethan, 16. 
Andrews, Charles B., 1S2, 197 
Asbury, Bp. Francis, 120. 

B., Mr., 15, 40. 

Bacon, Asa, 174. 

Baldwin, Rev. Ashbel, 45. 

Bantam, 32, 62, 177, 186. 

Barnes, Hiram, 116. 

Beebe, Col., 68, 178, ib;. 

Beecher, Catherine, 47, 136, 190. 

Beecher, Charles, 50. 

Beecher, Harriet, see Stowe. 

Beecher, Mrs. Harriet Porter, 118, 188, 198. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, a boy's appetite, 13, 166 ; tributes 
to his mother, 18, 139 ; school memories, 21, 147, 207 ; 
on winter nights, 24 ; childhood, 29, 115, 156 sq. ; meet- 
ing house memories, 40, 163, 165 ; whippings, 41; 
chores, 45 ; children, 46 ; bobolink, 78 ; North street, 
84 ; stays away from school, 89 ; thunder storm, 91 ; 
stone wall, 92 ; boys, 95 ; birthday and birthplace, 100 ; 
fishing, loi ; haying, 103 ; Judah Champion, 145 ; 
Charles Smith, 192 ; winter, 211. 

Beecher, Lyman, proverbial sayings, 13, 25, 27, 56, 72, 
192, 213 ; library, 36 ; trial sermons, 39 ; family pray- 
ers, 50; Six Sermons, 82, 160 sq.; on Byron, 104; on 
Disestablishment, 162 ; Thanksgiving Day, 193 ; on 
Reeve, 51, 202 sq., 212. 

Beecher, Roxana, letters, 18, 115, 185 ; on tulip bulbs, 52 , 
characterized, 18, 139, 154 sq.; death of, 155. 

Beecher, Thomas K., 32. 

Beecher, William, 139. 

Beers, Julia, iii. 

Beers, Seth P., iii. 

Belden, Mrs. H. B., 38. 

Bluebird, The first, 43 sq. 

Blizzard. See Winter. 

13* (215) 



2l6 INDEX. 



Birge, John W., 15. 

Bradley, Abraham, 38. 

Bradley, William A., 121. 

Brace, Charles Loring, 97, 98. 

Brace, John P., 109, 150. 

Brown, John, 151, 187. 

Buel, David, 70. 

Buel, Henry W., 60. 

Buel, Deacon John, 14. 

Buel, Mary, 181. 

Burr, Aaron, 24 sq., 133. 

Bushnell, Horace, 62 sq., 131 sq. , 154, 208 sq. 

Calhoun, John C, 146 sq. 
Camp, Rev. J. E., 150. 
Casino, no. 
Catlin, Ann, 76. 
Cedar Creek, Battle of, 168. 
Champion, Judah, 80, 105, 108, 129, 145. 
Church, Samuel, 19, 77, 130, 138. 
Coit, Henry R., 174. 
Cold Harbor, Battle of, 86. 
Collier, James, 84. 
Collier, Thomas. 124. 
Collins, Amos M., 55. 
Collins, Timothy, 129, 173. 
Colvocoresses, G. P., 70. 

Congregational Church, 116, 126 161. See Meeting- 
house. 
Coimty Jail, 83. 
Cutler, George Y., 185, 195 sq , 206 sq. 

Danbury Alarm, 68. 

Dark Day, The, 79. 

Davies, John, Jr., 90, 205. 

Davies, Mary, 90, 181. 

Deming, Clarence, 15, 40, 58, 81, 159, 196. 

Deming, Julius, 23, 127. 

Dickinson, Anna, 79. 

Dress of the Revolution, 53 

Dwight, Timothy, 127. 

Election Day, 57, 159. 
E7iqtnrer, 97, 123. 
Execution Sermon, 180. 

Fire of 18S6, 91 ; of 1S88, 128. 



INDEX. 217 

Fire Department Buildinc;-, S7. 
Fort Washington, 178, 1S7. 
Franklin, Gov. William, 76. 

Garrettson, Rev. Freeborn, gg. 

Gibbs, Gershom, 122, 212. 

Goshen, Town of, 155. 

Gould, James, rebukes a client, 26 ; as a scholar, 26 ; resi- 
dence, 13S ; lecture room, 14S ; as a law writer, 169 ; 
last appearance at the bar, 1S4. 

Griswold, Eunice, 52. 

Griswold, Jacob, 72 sq., SS, 181. 

Harris, Joseph, 125. 

Hickok, Rev. Laurens P., 116. 

Hickox, G. A.. 31, 123, 142. 

Hollister, G. H., career, 203 sq. ; quoted, 49, 169 sq., 211. 

Hoppin, J. M., 137 sq., 204. 

Hubbard, Abby J., 87 sq., 132, 151. 

Hubbard, John H., 119, 152. 

Hubbard, Mary. 47. 191. 

Hudson. Rev. Henry M., 103. 

Hunt, Mary A., 76. 

Huntington, Charles, 52. 

Huntington, Collis, 31. 

Htmtington, Rev. Dan, 166, 

Ice Storm. See Winter. 
Indians, 42, 72, 74 sq., 125 

Jacob, John, 180. 
Jones, Hiel, 115. 

Kenney, George, 88, 176. 
Kirby, Edmund, 60. 
Kirby, Ephraim, 38, 62. 
Kilbourne, P. K., 121. 
King George Statue, 113 sq. 

Law School, 20. See Reeve and Gould, 

Lewis, Luke, 72. 

Lincoln, Jeannie Gould, 22, 138. 

Litchfield, described by Gibbs, 17 ; by Morris, 28 ; by 

Dan Huntington, 166 ; by Harriet Porter Beecher, 198 ; 

acquired, 42 ; original deeds, 69 ; settlement of, 88 ; 

celebrations of 1826 and 1876, 109 ; during Revolution, 

114 ; welcomes returning soldiers, 125 ; its old houses, 

212. See Town Meeting. 



2l8 INDEX. 

Litchfield County Centennial, 130 sq. 
Litchfield Historical Society. 125. 
Long-evity. 132. 
Lyon, Matthew, Sg. 

Mansfield, E. D., 53. 95. 104, 135, 148. 

Marvin, Re3'nold, 38. 

Masonic Lodge, 92. 

Matthews, David, 130, 156. 

March, Month of, 42. 

Marsh, John, 42, 57. 

Marsh, Rev. Truman, 182. 

McLaughlin, Rev. D. D. T.. 44, 84. 

McLaughhn, E. T., 54 sq., 202. 

McNeifl, Edwin, 30, 

Meeting-house, The first. 66 ; the Champion — Beecher, 

40, 129, 164 sq., 16S. 189. See Congregational Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church, 121 sq., 199 sq. See As- 

bury and Garrettson. 
]\Iilton, 133, 134. 
Monitor, The, 82. 90, 124, 207. 
Moore, " Uncle Ben," 121 sq. 
Morris, James. Jr., 21, 28, 73, 113. 
Morse, Jacob, Sr., 121 sq. 
Murray, Hezekiah, 81. 

Naugatuck Railroad, 154, 

Nineteenth Connecticut, 149, 151. See Second Connecti- 
cut. 
Norton, William, 57, 83. 
North Street, 84. 
Noyes, Mrs. W. C. , 49, 149. 

Osborn, Rebecca, 132. 

Parks, 161. 

Peck, John, 88. 

Peck, John M., 177. 

Peck, Paul, 68. 

Peck, W. G., 167. 

Perkins, J. Deming, 26, 31, 61, 87. 

Perry, Bp. Wm. Stevens, 193. 

Petersburg Entrenchments, 97. 

Phelps, S. S., 76. 

Pierce, Miss Sarah, her schoolgirls, 94 ; school, 95 ; 

schoolhouse, 149 ; see 95, 150, 190. 
Pierpont, Rev. John, incidents concerning, 58, 61, 131 ; 

quoted 14, 108, 124, 131, 154. 



INDEX. 219 

Pierpont, Judge John, 149. 
Post-office, 24. 

Ked Cross Auxiliary, 80. 

Reeve, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, 46 sq., 155. 

Reeve, Tapping, founds Law School, ig ; Loring and 
Church's estimates of, 19 ; letter to Aaron Burr, 25 ; 
religious character, 51 ; absent-mindedness, 67 sq. ; his 
home, 116 sq.; chivalrous saying, 136; law reformer, 
168 ; last conversation, 202 ; his death, 203 ; influence, 
212. 

Revivals, ti8, 

Roman Catholic Church, 111-113. 

Saltonstall, Thomas, 159. 

Sanford, Mrs. A., 73. 

Schools, 21, 147, 170 sq., 207 sq. See Law School and 

Miss Pierre's School. 
Second Connecticut, The, 79. 
Seymour, Edward W., 140-142. 
Seymour, Henry, 84. 
Ssymour, Horatio, 85. 
Seymour, Morris W., 198. 
vSeymour, Moses, 143, 167. 
Seymour, Origen Storrs, 32-35, 162, 198. 
Seymour, Rev. Storrs C, 193, 204. 
Seymour, Mrs. Storrs O., 93. 
Seymour, Thomas, 42. 
Sheldon, Daniel, 172 sq. 
Sheldon, Elisha, 137. 
Shepaug Valley Railroad, 13, 30 sq 
Shumway, A. B., 123. 
Skinner, Richard, 84. 
Skinner, Roger, 91. 
Slavery, 191. 
Smith, Charles, 192. 
Smith, Reuben, 173. 
Smith, Truman, 109. 
Snow Storms. See Winter. 
South Farms Society, 57. 
South Street, 185. 
Starr, F. Ratchford, Farm Experiences, 64, 69, 78, 126; 

interview with " Uncle Bill," 175. 
St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church, 66, 181, 204. 
Stages, 32, 88, 115 sq. 
Stone, Alva, 107, 177. 



Stone, Dotha, 210. 

Stone, Rev. Hiram, 1S6. 

Stone, Leonard, 205. 

Stowe, Harriet Beechcr, winter, 15 ; the open fireplace 
16 ; as a child, 29, 157, 18S, 190; month of March, 42 
first bluebird, 43 ; family prayers, 51 ; spring, 58 
childhood home, 65 sq. ; birthday and love of Litch- 
field, 92 ; on her biography, 93 ; early impressions of 
Byron, 104; tributes to her mother, 139, 154 sq. ; to 
John P. Brace, 150 ; the meeting-house choir, 164 sq. ; 
her first communion, 17S ; first essay, 190 ; early abhor- 
rence of slavery, 191. 

Strong, Jedidiah, 71. . 

Tallmadge, Benjamin, 49 sq., 160. 

Tallmadge, Frederick A., 140. 

Taylor, Rev. James, 84. 

Temperance Association, 70. 

Tenure of Ofirce, 184. 

Thunder Storms, 90 sq. 

Thompson, George, 188. 

Town Meeting, spring election, 57 ; auction. 159 ; the 

moderator, 163 • notable votes, 75, 78, 133, 167, 199, 

20S, 210, 212. 
Tracy, Uriah, 135, 137 sq. 

Vaill, T. F., war memories. So, 87, 98, 152. 
Vermont and Litchfield, 77. 
Village Improvement Company, 66. 

Wadsworth, Elijah, 186. 

Washington, George, 79, 136 sq. 

Wessells, H. W., 37. 

Wessells, L. W., 123. 

Winchester, Battle of, 152. 

Winter, recalled by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 15 ; bliz- 
zards, 33, 47 sq. ; ice storms, 37, 52 ; November snows, 
185, 195 ; of 1779-80, 207 ; Mr. Barker's prediction, 211 ; 
Henry Ward Beecher's reminiscence, 208. 

Winter Walk, A, 54. 
Witness, The, 127. 

Wolcott, Frederick, 179, 183 sq. 

Wolcott, Frederick H., 134. 

Wolcott, Hannah, 135. 

Wolcott, Joshua Huntington, 140. 

Wolcott, Ohver, letters to Mrs. Wolcott, 13, 22, 29, 51. ^i 
sq., 86, 209 ; to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 16 ; signs Declara- 



tion, loS ; services to his country, log, 206 ; melts King 
George statue, 113 sq.; emancipates " Csesar," 191. 

Wolcott, Mrs. Oliver, 23. 

Wolcott, Oliver, Jr., engagement, 17; career, z'bi'd.; boy- 
hood home, ibid.; name, 40 ; elected governor, 58 sq. ; 
residence, 60; on New England Sabbath, 12S sq.; school 
days, 170 sq ; loses lawsuit, 183. 

Wolcott, J\Irs. Oliver, Jr., 135. 

Wolcott, Mariann, "An Unwilling- Maid." 23, 39; her 
father's concern for, 52 ; letters, 39, no, 136. 

Wolcott, Mary Ann, 135. 

Wolcott Library. 140. 

Woodruff, Clark, 137. 

Woodruff, George C. (1S05-S5), 109, 114, 197 sq. 

Woodruff, George C. (editor), 123. 

Woodruff', George M.. 66, 146, 161. 

Woodruff, Lewis B., 96, iiS sq. 

Woodruif , Morris, 145 sq, 



JflNUflRT. 



FEBRUAIRT. 



n/lRCH. 



APRIL 



n/JT. 



JUNE. 



JULY, 



/qUQU5T. 



5EFTEnBER. 



OCTOBER. 



NOYEnPER. 



DECEnDER. 



Litchfield Business Cards 



iitdjfirlti enquirer 

George C. Woodruff, Proprietor. 
The Oldest Newspaper in Litchfield County. 

OTHER papers, in the town and 
county, have been born and 
died, and the old reliable ^;^- 
qitirer has continued to give the town, 
county, and state news to the sons 
and daughters of Litchfield all over 
the world. It circulates in two-thirds 
of the states of the Union and in sev- 
eral foreign countries. The sub- 
scription price is $1.50 per year, pay- 
able in advance. These are plain 
facts. The Enquirer is to be judged 
entirely on its merits and does not 
believe in ''blowing its own horn." 
A first-class Job Printing office is run 
in connection with the newspaper. 



(i) 



JJlcUficId Business; Cards 



Rawkbur$L^ 



THIS popular resort having 
been recently refitted, newly 
furnished, and equipped with 
an Otis Passenger Elevator is 
homelike in all its appointments, 
with cuisine of superior excellence ; 
easy of access from all points. 
Altitude of nearly 1,200 feet is 
not attained at any other moun- 
tain resort within equal distance of 
New York City. Open from 
April to November. Illustrated 
booklet sent on application. 



George B. Browne 

manager 



(2) 



Litchfield Business Cards 



Cbe linitea States Rotel 

THIS IS ONE OF THE HISTORIC 

^ HOTELS OF NEW ENGLAND; 

J787-I899 THOROUGHLY MODERNIZED, 

^ WELL EQUIPPED, AND OPEN 

THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE YEAR. 

JAMES CAMPBELL^ Proprietor 

The First National Bank 



Of Litchfield, Conn, 

)ODRUFF CH/ 

jnt 
CHAS. E. WILSON, Cashier 

Capital, $200,000*00 



GEO. M. WOODRUFF CHAS. H. COIT 

President Vice-Pres. 

CHAS. E. WILSON, Cashier 



ELBERT P. ROBERTS 
Real estate Jlscncp 

I have on my list every house that is for rent in Litch- 
field, with the exception of one, for the Summer Season. 
Send for list. Address, 

ELBERT P. ROBERTS. 

LrrcHFiELD, Conn. 

tilcMkld I nsurance R gencp 

Thirty Companies 

FIRE, LIFE, ACCIDENT, HEALTH, PLATE GLASS, BURGLARY, 
TORNADO, BONDS AND INDEMNITY 

CAPITAL, . . , $400,000,000 

Losses paid in 12 years more than $250,000 
'* Time fried and fire tested " 
Low Rates Prompt Settlement of Losses 

CHAS. B, BISHOP, Agent. 



[jfclificid Business Cards 



WILLIAM T. MARSH, 



^^f8aRHNce, 



The Strongest Companies and Fa- 
vorable rates. 

FRED. J. STAUSEBACH 



Fire, Life, and Accident Insurance 



Beckwith Block 



CHARLES J. BURRILL 

C;oun$elor at Caw 

NORTH STREET 



JOHN T. HUBBARD 

^ • . 

Counselor at Law 

:::::: Beckwith Block 



(e) 



Litchfidd Business Cards 



The Corner Drug Store 

x\arox Crutch, Proprietor. 

Druggist and Stationer 



Choice Confectionery, Cigars, Papers, and 
Periodicals for sale. 

Prescriptions carefully compounded from 
Best Materials -i-ia. 

Wheeler^s Pharmacy 

We Are 

CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS 

NEARLY everybody knows this, but many 
people think that our business is con- 
fined to putting up prescriptions and vending 
drugs. It is true that we give special atten- 
tion to these things — we are leaders in fact 
— but there are other ways in which we can 
serve you. 

A large line of DRUGGISTS' SUN- 
DRIES and TOILET ARTICLES. 

Fashionable STATIONERY in all its 
branches. Orders taken for engraved Visit- 
ing Cards and Wedding Invitations. 

''Huyler's" Dainty Chocolates and Bon 
BoNs are Here Also 

(9) 



Litchfield Business Cards 



Litchfield Phciin^icy 

Pratt & CiroiAiALs:s, Proprietors 

NOP TH STPEET 

T SELL the coldest and the best ICE in town 

Edward Crutch 

Orders left at Crutch's Drug Store promptly 
attended to. 

■p/^T_T/^ PAR IVT ' ^ ^o^'^^^*^ 9"® ^^^^® ^^st ^^ Litch- 
field, with which it is con- 
nected by telephone. It, with its Dairies, is under the 
management of 

The Echo Farm Co. 

Which makes daily deliveries in Litchfield and to New 
York and Brooklyn homes of 

Bottled Milk, Cream, and Buttermilk, 

also Roll and ''Echo Print '' Butter 

Either with or without salt 
The above product, without exception, is from cows 
that have successfully passed the tuberculin test 

The company now conducts its two Grist or Custom 
Mills, supplying therefrom Corn, Oats, Middlings, Bran, 
and Mill-Feeds generally ; also hottest Graham Flour, 
This latter will be found particularly appetizing and much 
more wholesome than the prevailing white, starchy 
brands popular at present. 

r 112 W. 40th St., N. Y. City. 
T. I- t\ai J 364 Columbus Ave., near 77th St. 

Branch Offices: -j §03 pulton St., Brooklyn. 

[ 432 Atlantic Ave , Brooklyn. 

(10) 



Litchfield Business Cards 



€lm Riagc Farm . . . 

Bottled Milk and Cream 

If you want the best, be sure to send your order to Elm 
Ridge Farm ; orders promptly attended to. 

L TRUMBULL 

QOTo c. M. Qanung 

The Poor Man's Friend 

for your QROCERIES 
We make Tea and Coffee a specialty 
WEST STREET 

GixiRRiss & l:ln¥3rc 

Dealeivs in 

Dl?Y GOODS, GROCERIES, 

CRCKiiERY, CARI>E1 S, E rc. 



West Street 



(ii) 



LifcJificld Business Cords 



C. W. HINSDALE 

At the Old Stand, First 
Door East of Court House, 



-• 



Keeps an assortment of Notions, Crockery, 

Hardware, Farming Tools, Wooden 

Ware, and a full line of GROCERIEvS. 

— DEALER IN — 

Choice BEEF, MUTTON, LAMB, AND VEAL 

Smoked Meats of All Kinds 



west street. 



W. N. Reynolds 
..Peoples^ Fish Market*. 

FINE sea food, fruits and 

^ VEGETABLES, 

SOFT CRABS 7^ LOBSTERS ON 

TO ORDER. SATURDAYS. 

. . . West Street. . . . 



Special Attention Paid to Teaming and Freis-hting;. Telephone 
Connections. 

Louis J. Goodman 

...dealer in... 

COAL, WOOD, CHARCOAL, and 
GREAT EASTERN FERTILIZERS 

ij;^^ Agent for Osborne Farming Implements, Syracuse Plows, 
Champion Farm and Team Wagons, and Bob Sleighs. Every- 
thing guaranteed as represented. 

( 12) 



LifcJificId Business Cards 



F. U. NcwcoMii 



I Dealer ix | 

. . . . COAL, WOOD, BRICK, LIME, 
CEMENT, SEJFER PIPE, DRAIN 
TILE, ETC 

W. J. BISSELL^i^ — - 

Dealer in 

^ Dry Goods^ 

Fancy Goods^ Etc* 



AVEST STREET. 



L. R. DENEGAR, 



DEALER IN 



Ready-Made Clothing and Gentlemen's Furnishing Goods 



Hats, Caps, Boots, and Shoes 
Trunks, Bags, Etc. 



Wiggins' Block 



ALEX. J. GPOSJEAN 

. , DEALER IN . . 

Boots, Shoes, cincl Rubbers 

Custom Work and Repairing. 

Cash Store Woodruff Block, West Street 

(13) 



LitcJificId Business Cards 



J. m:. k:ra.use 

JMcrcbant Cailor 

I have now on hand a very large VY/z'^^L^n ^nn^l^lt"*< 
and finely assorted line of WtK'ILIl JMIMI|JIL^ 



A perfect Jit and fine 7vorkmanship guaranteed in every case 



J. M. KRAUSE, West Street 



Litchfield Clothing Store 

THOS. A. SMITH, Proprietor 

^ CLOTHINGS^ 

Furnishing Goods, Hats, Caps, Rubber and Oil 
Clothing, Trunks, Bags, Umbrellas, Etc. 

GEORGE J. SWITZER 

Contractor and Bui Icier 

Builders' Hardware, Building Paper, Tar 

Paper, Electric Bells, Stable 

Fixtures, Etc. 

W. E. MALLORY 
Practical Plumber and Tinsmith 



F/innbing and Tinning- in All T/ieir B>-a)ic/ies 



Heating by Hot Water, Steam, Hot Air, or Combination 
Hot Water and Hot Air 

(14) 



Litchfield Busificss Cards 



George E. Mason George A. Smith 

MASON & SMITH 
1* urniture Dealers 

and runeral L/irectors 

West Street 

Reliable Goods and Honest Prices 

Y^ Old Curiosity Shoppe 



R. P. SMITH 

DKALER IX 

Antique Furniture east street 



:EPAIRING DONE IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 



PAPER HANGINGS PAINTERS' SUPPLIES 

W. G. ROSBACH 

HOUSE AND SIGN PMNTING 

Picture Frames Made to Order 
Beckwith's Block, South St. 

{ 15) 



Litchfield Business Cards 



...F. M. SANFORD... 



DKALER IN ALL KINDS OF 

Stoves, Furnaces, Ranges, Hardware, 

Housekeeping Goods, Pumps, Sinks, Iron and 
Lead Pipe, Steam Fitting and Tinning 

Agency for the National ~:A?^ Third Building West of 

Acetylene Gas Generator. 7^ Court House. 



KARL'S Barber Shop 
Shaving, . Haircutting, . and . Shampooing 

RAZORS HONED 



SaiNford Building, West Street 



LOUFS HAE... 

CHINESE 



LAUNDPN 



. . . South Street 



Work promptly done and returned the third or fourth day after 
it has been received. 

(i6) 



Litchfield Business Cards 



South Farms Laundry 



Family Washing Done with Care 



Rugs, Carpets, and Blankets Washed and 
Cleaned 

NO CHEMICALS USED 

All Goods Called for and Delivered 
Leave Orders at South Farms Store, West Street 

FLYNN & DOYLE 

MANUFACTURERS OF 

CARRIAGES AND SLEIGHS 

Also dealers in Carriage-Makers' Supplies, Hardware, Paints, Oils, 
Harness, Whips, Carriages to Order at Short Notice 

Agents for the Celebrated MILBURN FARM WAGONS 

AGENTS FOR BICYCLES '"'"""""'%^^'rl^co^^, 

SETH PRATT 
SILE AND EXCHANGE STflBLES 

WEST STREET 

Harness, Robes, Whips, Etc., Etc. 
(.7) 



Litchfield Business Cards 



PRATT & FENN 

Livery^ Feed^ and Stage Stables 

Hay, Oats, and vStraw 

WEST STREET 

Samuel Trumbull 



Manufacturer 

OF 



..H^A^RIsrESS 



And Dealer in all Kinds of.... 

HORSE GOODS repairing a specialty 

A. K. TAYLOR 



Rlackstnitl) 



HORSE AND OX SHOEING, and GENERAL 
JOBBING 



Shop in rear of Wiggin's Block 

(i8) 



336 



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